I read a great piece by Chris Brogan the other day dealing with the concept of using a blog as a loss leader. Quick aside: Chris is scary prolific. I say this because I sometimes fear that the high degree to which social media evangelicals like me invoke Chris’ name could subtract from the credibility he richly deserves.  I mention him often because simply put, there’s no quit in this guy. He’s a freakin’ machine and that makes him valuable to me.

Ok, disclaimers out of the way, we press on.

The post I’m referring to can be found here and it’s very informative. Chris does a terrific job discussing this idea, so I won’t be covering that topic specifically, but I will be dove tailing off of it. Read the rest of this entry »

If the times we spend between seeing a child grow are vast, our response to his growth is typically one of stunned disbelief.

“How’d you get so big?” “Where has the time gone?” And so on.

We experience the personal and professional growth of others in much the same way.

“How did you do that?!”

But often we sit in awe of others’ growth, as if a gun loaded with accomplishment bullets were fired at that lady, this dude or those businesses. Maybe it’s frustration with the daunting nature of our own journeys that limits our ability to think beyond a resolute notion that someone anointed him or her with success.

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In May of 2008, A-list celebrity Jessica Alba challenged us to beat her in a staring contest via Youtube and IBeatYou.com. The video went viral and since uploaded to Youtube, has garnered over 10 million views. She’s since made other competition and social videos, such as her mean face contest installment and chronicling her trip to the 44^th Presidential Inauguration. Read the rest of this entry »

“I don’t have time for all that, Scott.” That’s what most of my customers say when I suggest they use social media tools to engage with customers and prospects.

And you know what? That’s fair. I totally get it. As a small business owner, your sights are steadily fixed on keeping what you have happy and not so much on growth opportunities driven by methods that are (a) largely unfamiliar to you and (b) time-consuming to apply. You’ve got bills to pay, debts to manage, second and third mortgages and most importantly customers to keep happy. Your business is doing fine without the added labor burdens built in to socializing your company’s message using the likes of Facebook and Twitter. And Hell, blogging is something probably better suited to the young entrepreneur anyway. Read the rest of this entry »