David Leonhardt’s SEO and Social Media Marketing

Welcome to our first ever “Business Blog Commenting Carnival.” I spend a fair amount of time visiting blogs to learn, discuss, support and network.  With all the comments I leave, surely there are some that I should be sharing with my own readers.  And I thought also that you might be interested in some of the same blog posts that inspired me to elucidate, extrapolate or simply irritate.  And that is the idea between what I hope will become a regular feature on this blog.

Over at Do You Shine? Consider A Business Model Shift , I just had to agree that change is a mind trap…

This is so sadly true, not just with whole business models but even with small adjustments. How many times have I known that I should make a change…but change is disruptive. It takes time to even just set up a new process for doing something. There is a HUGE psychological barrier to making changes.

And at at 5 Ways to Make Your Site Fly, one of the 5 tips to make your blog faster was about resizing images. I added this…

I have also found an easy way to resize images is just to view them on my desktop, then reduce the size of the picture viewing window, then I just use the snipping tool to save the image in a new size.

I had to jump in at Want to start a business – How to come up with a new Business idea…

I think a more basic question is why you want to start a business in the first place. Normally the reason to start a business IS because you have a passion about something. Or you see a problem that needs fixing. Or you are frustrated in your job because the boss just doesn’t get it.

If you have to search for an idea, there is a good chance your business will fail. The core motivation is missing.

On Social Media and Email – a Winning Combination…

Indeed, there is no guarantee that your list will respond as you wish. First, the content must be really good, not something cobbled together on the cheap or a sales pitch with no curiosity of “Wow!” factor. And then, as you say, you have to be oh-so clear about what you want them to do, because people can be stupid – yes, even really smart people can also be stupid – and busy and distracted.

And while we are on the topic of the power of social media (I know this is not so much business related), I commented at 7 Links, 5 Writers…

“One of the most amazing things about the Internet, and one I am most thankful for, is the way it brings together people of different ages, nationalities, backgrounds, and experiences, and enables them to become friends before it ever occurs to them that, under other circumstances, their paths likely never would have crossed. ”

I have often thought about this. It is one of the reasons I am so happy to associate with people on the Internet, even though I am a bit of a hermit. Many people I am best buddies with on the Internet, I might not even get along with in real life – who knows?  This virtual world is amazing.

Most people do this when they get spam email:

Grrrrrr….!*$#@!+%$!*&

But sometimes, spam can be really funny.  Especially when it comes to pathetic target marketing (You know, like I really need my melons to be enhanced or my Brazilian to be waxed!).  In that same light, consider this ad I recently received:

Italian food from a Chinese restaurant in Pakistan…targeted to a Quebec-born Hungarian guy with a German name living in Ontario. Award-winning pizza?  Maybe.  Award-winning marketing?  I suspect that these guys would not recognize their target market even if they understood the concept.

Thanks for the laugh, guys.  I’ll have mine with green pepper and mushrooms.  Will you deliver in 30 minutes of less?

Here is a great list of reasons why you would want to shorten your URLs.  Here is the abridged version of the list, but the link above gives a more detailed explanation, well-thought out and pretty obvious for anyone trying to spread their website by means other than links. 

• Avoid broken links in your emails/messenger text
• Save characters in your SMS
• Tell others your links via phone
• Hide your affiliate links
• Much better for audio recirdings or repeating the URL over the phone

If you want to attract attention, it helps to make them think.  I ran the following item in my Daily Dose of Happiness ezine:

RELAX

For more permanent stress-relief, paint your walls blue, green or a combination of the two.  Since these are cool colors, they can also help keep tropical homes cool.  Not recommended in Iqaluit or Hammerfest. 

A fairly straightforward little item, with a touch of cuteness at the end.

Actually, it was a touch of interaction.  You have no idea how many people pulled out the atlas to find out where Iqaluit and Hammerfest are located.  And one Norwegian subscriber even emailed me to cheer the inclusion of her country in my ezine.

Make them think.  Make them look something up, but make sure that what they have to look up is not something really important to your message, because not everybody will look it up. 

David Utter writes in Dreaming Of Search In 1994 :

Instant messaging and VoIP have begun to supplant email for regular communications anyway, a change we will lament. The best part of email is its asynchronous nature. A message sent at 9 could be answered at 10 without either party feeling intruded upon or ignored.

I agree.  A discussion requires instant communications, best by telephone of one sort or another.  But for most communication, which requires a simple one-way transfer of information, email is at least as useful, much less disruptive and far more efficient.  Plus it leaves a trail to refer back to, especially when you want to refer back to commitments you, your supplier or your customer have made.  Plus email allows you to forward information, even months later, to new players who get involved. 

Unless a discussion is required, email is by far the most effective tool we have right now.