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Went in for a routine Starbucks purchase today and something occurred to me. When paying for something at Starbucks the process is made simple.

• They take my card and swipe it for me (versus pointing to a CC machine in front of the register)
• They don’t ask the question: “Credit or Debit?”

This struck me as interesting and got me to thinking.

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Picture if you would, an entrepreneur with a great Internet business idea. Let’s call him “Ken”. Ken is an expert in his field and is a successful business person. With a solid background in engineering, Ken was instrumental in bringing his company to the pinnacle of success. His only downside is that his success gives him a slightly inflated view of his capabilities in his efforts to market his new online venture.

On the other side of the country, there is a young female we will call “Barbie,” who is as equally charismatic as Ken. She is bright, resourceful and is always looking to improve her business model. She too has a ton of experience and is very competitive. You see, Barbie has successfully launched her own retail chain, understands the fundamentals of marketing but has yet to embrace the Internet. Despite her offline success, she knows that she’ll need to effectively enter the online space to take her business to the next level. She’s been successful by way of good product lines, great customer service and a solid vision for her brand. Barbie has worked hard to get to where she is…

For Businesses looking to capitalize on Social Media both Facebook and Twitter sit at the forefront of possibly a new paradigm shift. Though different in nature, they both are opening their doors for businesses to spend money and this makes them competitors in certain ways.

Tech Crunch recently posted a Facebook fan page study by Sysomos that revealed 77 percent of fan pages have fewer than 1,000 fans. Within this study ‘Facebook fan pages tend to be updated only once every 16 days.’

TechCrunch went on to say, “On Twitter, you follow someone because you want to hear what they have to say. On Facebook, you fan them just to show your support or affinity. Too often, it’s a throwaway gesture.”

I would agree with this as it is a sort of present day ‘snap shot’ for the state of FB (Fan pages) as compared to Twitter. However, I have seen fan pages become a thriving realm for interaction. Though most are still just, ‘oh, yeah..sure, i’ll become a fan’, with little interactiion after that, things are a changin’. (Oh wait, to ensure that I am up to speed, they are no longer ‘Fans’ according to FB…they are now people that ‘like’ your Fan page.) Read more…

Will The Corporate Website Survive?

Remember those days (unfortunately not too long ago) when we would try to get a client to move towards the Internet (i.e. selling products online, running a promotion or collecting customer information, etc.)? Or even that there were/are benefits beyond selling a product online (i.e. communication, building loyalty, creating interaction)? Clients and potential clients used to look at us like we were crazy! They’d laugh at us as they were showing us out the door, only to turn around and drop $65k on local cable TV advertising without being able to track a single lead. Perfect. Scratching my head I used to think to myself, “Am I over-estimating this Internet thingy?” (Definitely Not!)

Developers, Designers and Marketers are Ready for Work

This is a challenging time for the media & marketing industry no doubt. It will put some out of business and create opportunities for others. Hourly rates have gone down and engineers, developers, designers, producers and marketers have all been shaken to the core.

A long time ago in a (‘Tomorrow’) Land far, far away, I learned a lesson about marketing. This lesson in anti-humility and standing out in a crowd came from a Jedi Master – by way of Darth Maul.

…And the ‘Big Things’ will take care of themselves.

I heard a quote from an NFL coach while watching a game the other night. Peyton Manning once again led his team from behind in the 4th quarter to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars. The announcers were talking about the success of the Colts and the coaching philosophy behind their success and their unbelievable (record-setting) winning streak. When I heard this quote, (“Worry about the small things and the big things will take care of themselves.”) this struck me as very true on the Internet.

Both fear and a new product line is what I’m thinking.

In mid 2009 I turned my attention to Goodbarry. Not sure how I found the site, but when I got there, the site was not only well designed (old site no longer available after Adobe’s purchase) but it was very intriguing. Goodbarry was the retail brand for the core system called Business Catalyst.

First, for over 10 years companies have tried to make a product that makes it ‘easy’ to create and build a website. Pretty much all of them have failed. Why?

I remember in the not so distant past, the idea for any website was to make it look as robust as possible. We’d be constantly asked questions like, ‘can we add this section to the home page?’ or ‘we need to find a way to fit this and this into the site’. It then became [...]

This is one of our favorite YouTube videos ever.