A blog has many benefits for any business, and by clicking the “blogging”category link in the nav bar on the right you can read all about them. But there’s one blog benefit that applies to anyone… It’s empowering.

Blogs and Social Media (YouTube, Twitter, etc) have given the “Daniels” of the world something potent to use against  business “Goliaths” who BB (before blogs) could get away with some pretty irresponsible stuff. And, by “Goliath” I don’t just mean a huge corporate giant. It could also be a badly behaved doctor… like Dr. Joan Gerwitz, a Stamford, CT  ophthalmologist who I saw this week. Without going into unnecessary detail my experience with Dr. Joan Gerwitz was not a good one and I’d hate for anyone seeking a Stamford, CT  ophthalmologist to experience what I did.

Whether, or not, this post about Dr. Joan Gerwitz will make a difference is questionable. But, just knowing that it could makes me feel a helluva lot better.

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See more clips on “How Blogs and Podcasts can Build Your Business.”

You’re bound to read plenty of articles about how to succeed this year. Some undoubtedly have great tips, but just as many have uninspired, absurdly upbeat ideas that you’ve read a hundred other times. So, I thought I’d mix it up a little with a primer on how to shoot yourself in the foot, create your own problems, and just plain screw up this year.

No, I don’t want you to follow my advice, but these not so gentle reminders will help you avoid some of the most common ways that so many of us fail. Enjoy! (more…)

Don’t trust any marketing firm or person that’s not great at marketing themselves.

I hear it all the friggin’ time: “Yeah, I know my (FILL IN WORD) sucks, but I guess it’s like the cobbler’s children with no shoes. Heh, heh.”

If a marketing “expert” has a lame web site, or a lame business card, or doesn’t carry a business card, or has @aol, @gmail, or @optonline as their email domain, or has no blog, or doesn’t really know what a blog is, or what “Web 2.0″ means, and isn’t on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, and has no G-Cred, then he or she should not be calling themselves a marketing expert and have no right to be advising you on your business.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue.html?_r=1&em

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Excerpted from the NY Times:

One of the many ways that the election of Barack Obama as president has echoed that of John F. Kennedy is his use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Mr. Kennedy, it was television. For Mr. Obama, it is the Internet.

“Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee,” said Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

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How they helped a Black man with an Arab name win the US presidency.

Last month, a panel of top marketing experts, organized by Ad Age, gathered to select the ‘Marketer of the Year.’ Beating out the likes of Apple Computer, Burger King and Nike, the winner was “Team Obama.” Working with an unknown African-American candidate with an Arab name, they used a highly-organized, integrated, guerrilla marketing strategy utilizing many non-traditional social-media tactics.

Jon Fine, marketing and media columnist for BusinessWeek, pointed to Mr. Obama’s facility with engaging voters in social-media online channels. “It’s the fuckin’ Web 2.0 thing,” he said. Clearly Obama and his team understood the Internet better than McCain — and took advantage of that. From a broader perspective, however, Obama trusted the guidance of his top marketing advisor, David Axelrod.

Also, Obama invested almost twice what McCain spent on marketing — a fact suggesting that those who invest in marketing, and do it with the best help, have the best shot at winning.

Whether it’s selling a presidential candidate, or furniture, a successful effort depends on finding, and listening to, the best marketing help.

Learn more about effective marketing and social media