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The Decade That Transformed Media

As we head into the second decade of the new millennium (okay, it technically doesn’t begin for another year, but stick with me), it’s worth remembering where media stood just 10 years ago. In January, 2000, few people had heard of Google. Online advertising was banners and e-mails. Big media brands dominated the Web. U.S. […]

Advice For Graduating Seniors

I started off this week speaking to Dr. Nora Barnes’ social media marketing class at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. I try to speak to college classes at least four or five times a year, in part to give back something to the next generation and in part to learn more about what’s on […]

More Tips for Unblocking the Idea Jam

This is the second installment in a multi-part series on how to write killer content for your blog. It continues the thread I began last week on how to come up with ideas for topics. Defy conventional wisdom. This is an old newspaper columnist trick, but it works well. Think of a topic that most […]

Overcoming Blogger’s Block

The best way to sustain visibility, name recognition and search-engine love in our information-saturated world is to write a lot, particularly on a blog, which is a magnet for search engines. But writing is hard for most people. Just coming up with a topic to write about and something new to say is often the […]

Will All You Learned About SEO Be Worthless?

Last week, Google changed the rules of Web search with a relatively low-key innovation that I expect will permeate the search engine giant’s future strategy. Google Social Search is an experimental program that integrates content from a user’s social network into search results. When enabled, the first page of Google search results includes a few […]

Brand Marketing Due for a Makeover

As corporate marketers dive headlong into the annual ordeal known as the annual budgeting cycle, Forrester Research has released an interesting new report that challenges some assumptions about brand management. It costs $499, so see if you can borrow a copy from a friend. This summary will give you the high points. The October 9 […]

E-mail Do’s and Don’ts

As I write this essay, the founder of Email Data Source is telling the audience at the Inbound Marketing Summit, that email marketing has a return on investment of 44:1. I believe that, and Bill McCloskey’s words remind me that it’s been a while since I sang the praises of this venerable but highly useful […]

How To Be a Successful Podcast Guest

As a producer, host or speaker on more than 300 podcasts, I’ve learned a bit about the craft. Here are 11 tips for making your appearance as a podcast guest the best it can be. 1. If  possible, read the questions or script in advance Unless you’re comfortable shooting from the hip, you should know […]

Businesses That Think Like Publishers

In my BtoB magazine column earlier this year, I suggested that office-supply giant Staples should take advantage of the collapse of the mainstream publishing industry to become a trusted media source for small business. Staples hasn’t yet taken the plunge, but a number of ot her brands have, and I think it’s worth looking at […]

Blogging Blunders, Part 3

Final segment in a series on common business blogging mistakes. In Blogging Blunders Part 1 and Blogging Blunders Part 2, we looked at problems like failure to interact or to publish distinctive content. Let’s wrap up with the most frequent and frustrating blogging problem that I encounter: Failure to persist. Perhaps I’m unusual, but the […]