With social media and the Internet of Things, you won’t have to say ‘sorry’ “By the time the phone rings, there’s already trouble. When that manger is called or this department is reached, it’s because someone is disappointed, angry or stuck. Illness, broken promises or a real urgency have led to this new conversation even... More »The Internet of Things: A Competitive Advantage in Customer Service

What rich pins mean for your brand This week, Pinterest announced the rollout of two new features: rich pins and the ‘Pin It’ button for mobile applications such as Etsy, The North Face, Modcloth, Jetsetter and several others that have already integrated the button. Our kudos to Pinterest for the mobile upgrade – it’s an... More »What Rich Pins Mean for Your Brand

Bitter rivalries, drama-infused scheming and colossal meltdowns are mainstays of reality TV. Shows like “Survivor,” “The Real World” and “The Bachelor” thrive on high emotion and competition; but what happens when business owners participate in a reality TV show? For Samy and Amy Buzaglo, owners of Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, Ariz., their appearance on... More »What Brands Can Learn From Amy’s Baking Company

I’ve been asked many times before, “What’s your favorite social media platform for business?” Many people think that if you’re in business, LinkedIn is the only place to be, and while LinkedIn has its many benefits and is a strong contender in my social media platform, my answer may be surprising to you. My favorite... More »The Best Social Media Platform for Business

Editors have long been the gatekeepers for publishing houses. People who can single-handedly write a successful future for the media house or can as easily guide the organization into oblivion. With all organizations becoming publishers, your business needs a guiding force that can write the success story for your organization. Publishing content in various formats... More »Why You Need a Social Media Editor

I was inspired by a TED Talk by Marcus Sheridan, titled “The Honest Economy.” I’ve long admired Marcus’ tenacity regarding breaking down big ideas into simple, actionable items. Late last year, Marcus inspired a post about his presentation on the “Culture of Inbound Marketing.” He asked the audience members to explain what a blog was... More »Transparency in Marketing: “The Honest Economy”

Despite of all the presentation tips, tricks and templates I could give you. The art of creating a great presentation is a creative process. Storytelling, compelling introductions and memorable conclusions all take a HUGE amount of creative energy. Sometimes, the muse is just not speaking to you. You get stuck. I get stuck writing my... More »How to Get the Creative Presentation Juices Flowing

Marketing your business on Facebook has become a requirement these days. At least for businesses who want to reach more customers & make more money. Yet, because business owners face so much pressure to get active on Facebook, a lot of them struggle to do it right. That’s understandable — you’ve got employees, vendors, bill... More »4 Quick Fixes for a Boring Facebook Page

Remember way back in 2012 when we had good old candidate Mitt Romney and his binders full of women to kick around? Those were the days, weren’t they? Life was good, tweeting was easy and the cotton was high. Romney offered up those “binders full of women” like a batting-practice fastball to a home run-starved... More »Sorry Women, It’s Time for Binders Full of Jobs

A lot of people are confused about links within content. Due to the many iterations of the Google algorithm, opinions are not only divided but they are also varied about what is and is not acceptable to Google. I can answer that question very simply and very logically. Google has never really changed its advice... More »The Good and the Bad of Links Within Content

This infographic from fundersandfounders.com may be a little simplistic – especially because the timeline goes all the way back to pre-history - but it's still a powerful representation of economic history. It should give us all hope for the future – especially since more and more startups are focusing on areas like energy and healthcare [...] More »The Economic History of the World in One Simple Picture

The future of customer relationships depends more on context than transactions. And this trend is accelerating, driven by the integration of social media into customer relationship management (CRM), rapid gains in usability of CRM and integration applications, and the global growth of the API economy. Gaining a clear, contextually-based view of customers isn’t easy. Fine-tuning... More »How Cloud Integration Is Defining The Future Of CRM