Listen to John Follis and other top marketing thought leaders discuss the most relevant topics of the day. http://themarketingshow.net

My story as published in “The Power of Persistence” (Motivational Press / Nov ’09)

• The national ad campaign that got me invited.

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In a recent survey by Technorati.com, self-employed professionals reported the benefits of blogging:

• 71% have greater visibility in their industry.
• 63% said clients purchased products or services after reading their blog.
• 56% say their company is now regarded as a thought leader.
• 40% have been asked to speak at conferences.

With over 500 million registered users Facebook has become the largest social media site on the Web. Listen to this except from John’s talk “Using Social Media to Market your Business” on Facebook; what it is, how it began, and how you can leverage it for your business. (To hear the entire talk, contact Roberta@follisinc.com) Right click to download.

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From your prospects’ POV, Perception is Reality. Your prospects’ perception of you (company, product, or service) is what they’ll be basing their buying decision on — regardless of the truth. Therefore, it’s critical to make sure that every prospect touch-point clearly and convincingly convey the right brand message and product benefit. That involves your branding (company/product name, logo, tagline, design and tone), online presence (website, blog, videos, articles, G-cred), off-line presentations, and all your marketing and advertising initiatives.

The past decade saw a seismic shift in marketing communications as blogs, podcasts, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter led the media evolution. It’s an exciting time. Yet, with this cool evolution the focus on a clear, compelling company or product message has often been devalued. In many cases the over-reliance on media and technology has shifted the focus away from the resolving the key (and usually tough) marketing issues necessary for growing a successful business.

The most successful companies and organizations (Apple, Google, Team Obama, etc) work with top, independent marketing firms and experts to help them develop and maintain a strong brand message realizing that the media and technology is only a tool to help them get their message out.

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