How was everyone’s week? Mine was good, got a huge monkey off my back launching the Vistaprint Make an Impression Contest. It was a lot of long hours to get everything going, but it is pretty cool for both micro businesses (they can win a $10K marketing package) and individuals (win an iPad). The team did a great job on it so I am excited to see how it goes. Other than that the week was pretty smooth sailing, finally erased the punch list and am ready to start a new one and will be seeing a pair of Sox games over the weekend so should be a great time.  Hope you all have a great weekend, here’s this week’s edition of Five for Friday.

Does the Internet Make You Smarter? – Now since this ran in the WSJ, I guess it comes across as smarter than other low-brow pubs. With all the information at our finger tips, I often feel like there is a level of information overload. I have seen a decrease in attention span, but can say that my reading speed has greatly increased, both of which may be signs that I am getting smarter or just becoming senile.

Creating a Content-Driven Community – I love Valeria’s Conversation Agent. If you are not a subscriber, you should do so ASAP. This post is a great ‘How To’ for businesses of all sizes when looking to build a community. What do you give back to yours?

UnMarketing the World One Tweet at a Time: An Interview With Scott Stratten – This interview is a plug for the UnMarketing book which Scott is currently promoting. This is one book that I am excited to see go to print. For starters, he’s got a great blog and methodology, but I will also be featured in it, which is exciting. The part I love about this article is this quote:

People say, “What’s the ROI?” and in saying that, they don’t get it.

They can see that with direct mail, if they invest 10 grand and they make 11 grand from it, that it works. If I went to them 5 or even 10 years ago and said, “There will be tools in the future that will allow you not only to listen to your potential, current and past customers, but also to jump in and talk to them” and then offered those tools to them to use, they would have paid me 10 grand a month to use them. But now that the tools are available and don’t cost anything, they’re still wondering if the ROI is worth it.

The fact of the matter is that while social media is not rocket science it is still something that takes time and skill to get. In my experience traditional and hardcore marketing folks are typically the last to get it, because it is different and new.

How to handle mistakes and move on with your life – Perhaps the second hardest thing to do is to say that you screwed up. We all do it, but for some reason it ranks up there with admitting that we are wrong as something we all hate to do. This is a thought provoking piece because it shows a real-world situation much worse than any 9-5 screw up.

Employers brew up new ways to recruit talent – I love it when I see two things that I love in the same story together. In the case of this story it is a mix of beer and social media. Hooray! The Big Rock Brewery is doing some pretty cool things with social media and their recruiting tactics are one that companies across the border can learn from.

How was everyone’s week? Mine was good, got a huge monkey off my back launching the Vistaprint Make an Impression Contest. It was a lot of long hours to get everything going, but it is pretty cool for both micro businesses (they can win a $10K marketing package) and individuals (win an iPad). The team did a great job on it so I am excited to see how it goes. Other than that the week was pretty smooth sailing, finally erased the punch list and am ready to start a new one and will be seeing a pair of Sox games over the weekend so should be a great time.  Hope you all have a great weekend, here’s this week’s edition of Five for Friday.

Does the Internet Make You Smarter? – Now since this ran in the WSJ, I guess it comes across as smarter than other low-brow pubs. With all the information at our finger tips, I often feel like there is a level of information overload. I have seen a decrease in attention span, but can say that my reading speed has greatly increased, both of which may be signs that I am getting smarter or just becoming senile.

Creating a Content-Driven Community – I love Valeria’s Conversation Agent. If you are not a subscriber, you should do so ASAP. This post is a great ‘How To’ for businesses of all sizes when looking to build a community. What do you give back to yours?

UnMarketing the World One Tweet at a Time: An Interview With Scott Stratten – This interview is a plug for the UnMarketing book which Scott is currently promoting. This is one book that I am excited to see go to print. For starters, he’s got a great blog and methodology, but I will also be featured in it, which is exciting. The part I love about this article is this quote:

People say, “What’s the ROI?” and in saying that, they don’t get it.

They can see that with direct mail, if they invest 10 grand and they make 11 grand from it, that it works. If I went to them 5 or even 10 years ago and said, “There will be tools in the future that will allow you not only to listen to your potential, current and past customers, but also to jump in and talk to them” and then offered those tools to them to use, they would have paid me 10 grand a month to use them. But now that the tools are available and don’t cost anything, they’re still wondering if the ROI is worth it.

The fact of the matter is that while social media is not rocket science it is still something that takes time and skill to get. In my experience traditional and hardcore marketing folks are typically the last to get it, because it is different and new.

How to handle mistakes and move on with your life – Perhaps the second hardest thing to do is to say that you screwed up. We all do it, but for some reason it ranks up there with admitting that we are wrong as something we all hate to do. This is a thought provoking piece because it shows a real-world situation much worse than any 9-5 screw up.

Employers brew up new ways to recruit talent – I love it when I see two things that I love in the same story together. In the case of this story it is a mix of beer and social media. Hooray! The Big Rock Brewery is doing some pretty cool things with social media and their recruiting tactics are one that companies across the border can learn from.

How was everyone’s week? Mine was good, got a huge monkey off my back launching the Vistaprint Make an Impression Contest. It was a lot of long hours to get everything going, but it is pretty cool for both micro businesses (they can win a $10K marketing package) and individuals (win an iPad). The team did a great job on it so I am excited to see how it goes. Other than that the week was pretty smooth sailing, finally erased the punch list and am ready to start a new one and will be seeing a pair of Sox games over the weekend so should be a great time.  Hope you all have a great weekend, here’s this week’s edition of Five for Friday.

Does the Internet Make You Smarter? – Now since this ran in the WSJ, I guess it comes across as smarter than other low-brow pubs. With all the information at our finger tips, I often feel like there is a level of information overload. I have seen a decrease in attention span, but can say that my reading speed has greatly increased, both of which may be signs that I am getting smarter or just becoming senile.

Creating a Content-Driven Community – I love Valeria’s Conversation Agent. If you are not a subscriber, you should do so ASAP. This post is a great ‘How To’ for businesses of all sizes when looking to build a community. What do you give back to yours?

UnMarketing the World One Tweet at a Time: An Interview With Scott Stratten – This interview is a plug for the UnMarketing book which Scott is currently promoting. This is one book that I am excited to see go to print. For starters, he’s got a great blog and methodology, but I will also be featured in it, which is exciting. The part I love about this article is this quote:

People say, “What’s the ROI?” and in saying that, they don’t get it.

They can see that with direct mail, if they invest 10 grand and they make 11 grand from it, that it works. If I went to them 5 or even 10 years ago and said, “There will be tools in the future that will allow you not only to listen to your potential, current and past customers, but also to jump in and talk to them” and then offered those tools to them to use, they would have paid me 10 grand a month to use them. But now that the tools are available and don’t cost anything, they’re still wondering if the ROI is worth it.

The fact of the matter is that while social media is not rocket science it is still something that takes time and skill to get. In my experience traditional and hardcore marketing folks are typically the last to get it, because it is different and new.

How to handle mistakes and move on with your life – Perhaps the second hardest thing to do is to say that you screwed up. We all do it, but for some reason it ranks up there with admitting that we are wrong as something we all hate to do. This is a thought provoking piece because it shows a real-world situation much worse than any 9-5 screw up.

Employers brew up new ways to recruit talent – I love it when I see two things that I love in the same story together. In the case of this story it is a mix of beer and social media. Hooray! The Big Rock Brewery is doing some pretty cool things with social media and their recruiting tactics are one that companies across the border can learn from.

How was everyone’s week? Mine was good, got a huge monkey off my back launching the Vistaprint Make an Impression Contest. It was a lot of long hours to get everything going, but it is pretty cool for both micro businesses (they can win a $10K marketing package) and individuals (win an iPad). The team did a great job on it so I am excited to see how it goes. Other than that the week was pretty smooth sailing, finally erased the punch list and am ready to start a new one and will be seeing a pair of Sox games over the weekend so should be a great time.  Hope you all have a great weekend, here’s this week’s edition of Five for Friday.

Does the Internet Make You Smarter? – Now since this ran in the WSJ, I guess it comes across as smarter than other low-brow pubs. With all the information at our finger tips, I often feel like there is a level of information overload. I have seen a decrease in attention span, but can say that my reading speed has greatly increased, both of which may be signs that I am getting smarter or just becoming senile.

Creating a Content-Driven Community – I love Valeria’s Conversation Agent. If you are not a subscriber, you should do so ASAP. This post is a great ‘How To’ for businesses of all sizes when looking to build a community. What do you give back to yours?

UnMarketing the World One Tweet at a Time: An Interview With Scott Stratten – This interview is a plug for the UnMarketing book which Scott is currently promoting. This is one book that I am excited to see go to print. For starters, he’s got a great blog and methodology, but I will also be featured in it, which is exciting. The part I love about this article is this quote:

People say, “What’s the ROI?” and in saying that, they don’t get it.

They can see that with direct mail, if they invest 10 grand and they make 11 grand from it, that it works. If I went to them 5 or even 10 years ago and said, “There will be tools in the future that will allow you not only to listen to your potential, current and past customers, but also to jump in and talk to them” and then offered those tools to them to use, they would have paid me 10 grand a month to use them. But now that the tools are available and don’t cost anything, they’re still wondering if the ROI is worth it.

The fact of the matter is that while social media is not rocket science it is still something that takes time and skill to get. In my experience traditional and hardcore marketing folks are typically the last to get it, because it is different and new.

How to handle mistakes and move on with your life – Perhaps the second hardest thing to do is to say that you screwed up. We all do it, but for some reason it ranks up there with admitting that we are wrong as something we all hate to do. This is a thought provoking piece because it shows a real-world situation much worse than any 9-5 screw up.

Employers brew up new ways to recruit talent – I love it when I see two things that I love in the same story together. In the case of this story it is a mix of beer and social media. Hooray! The Big Rock Brewery is doing some pretty cool things with social media and their recruiting tactics are one that companies across the border can learn from.