Simple Techniques to be Found Online Using Social Media and the Web

The Bottom Line in 3 Steps to Stand Out Online

First: Cultivating visibility on line is a process of putting yourself and your content out on a variety of platforms with a variety of active and passive techniques that get you in front of the people and organizations that need to know about you. The content must be original. It must matter to your readers, with all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed and it must be accessible to the search engines with clear links back to you, your business or organization.

To be successful, this process takes constant and consistent effort across many different platforms over a long period of time. You must also be able to measure the content and know where you are starting from, what is happening and then adjust, and do again.

Second: It is essential to build market leadership and connections to the leaders and organizations in your market. The goal is to go from following the market to leading the market and becoming an authority in it.

Third: One of the results of the first two stages is that you develop exposure, products and services that you can promote and sell in your market.

We live in an amazing time; For almost no cost at all, we can spread our message around the globe.  Everyone, from the biggest companies to the smallest one man businesses, gets access to the same pieces of real estate, the same basic web page, video sites or social media platforms to send out their messages. What we do with it is up to us and how hard and smart we want to work, but we all can do it.



An excerpt from our newest book, How To Stand Out Online, available at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Stand-Out-Online-Techniques/

New Book from Bruce Jones, How to Stand Out on Line

I am proud to release my newest book, How to Stand Out Online, Simple Techniques to Be Found Online Using Social Media and the Web.

Cultivating visibility online is a process of putting yourself and your content out on a variety of platforms with a variety of active and passive techniques that get you in front of the people and organizations that need to know about you.  The content needs to be original, matter to your readers, accessible to the search engines and connected with clear links back to your home site. In this short read, How to Stand Out Online takes you through this process from the Keys to Being Found Online, Your Web Home and the Active and Passive Sites one needs to have to be successful.

My book is broken down into three parts, in part two I cover how to build market leadership and connections to the leaders and organizations in your market. The goal is to go from following the market to leading the market and becoming an authority in it.

Part three gives you a brief overview of how we can use this platform to not only promote ourselves but also allow us to develop, market and sell products online.

This book developed out of my consulting on social media with my design clients and as the social media consultant to Bill Gentile's Backpack Journalism Workshops.

Available in paper back at Amazon.com and shortly on Kindle.


How to Stand Out Online: Simple Techniques to be Found Online Using Social Media and the Web

Smile, 5 Tips for Success in Business from Our Book

5 business success tips for running a successful business. J. Bruce Jones talks from his book, "Smile and Other lessons from 25 Years in Business" You can download a copy of the book over on the right.

5 Basic Tips for Success in Business:
1. Smile
2. Be On Time
3. Do What You Say You Are Going to Do
4. Price Reasonably
5. Say Thank You

1. Smile
My number one lesson is to smile and be nice. People like to do business with those who treat them with respect. Often in the everyday work world people just aren’t all that nice to each other. As an outside consultant, vendor or just a regular employee, one can really stand out with a smile and pleasant demeanor. Answer the phone or your e-mail with a cheery tone even if you are having a bad day. Be the happy person.

2. Be On Time
Be on time for appointments. Remember, people are busy. They plan their schedules and presume that you will be punctual. Make sure to arrive fifteen minutes early as opposed to a minute late. Be on time with the project. Do whatever is necessary to deliver your promised product or service on time.

3. Do What You Say You Are Going to Do
If one makes a promise one must keep it. The best results come when you deliver beyond the commitment. Make your client look good to their organization. Give your client what they need to do their job successfully. Your client is the gatekeeper to their company and more assignments in the future. Once they know you can be depended upon, you will become a trusted vendor.

4. Price Reasonably
You don’t have to be the cheapest to succeed. There are many parts to making up prices but the point here is to price what you think the project or product is worth. You might be in a very competitive market and have to adjust. There is nothing worse than underbidding and then winning the project and now you have to live with this low price. Customers expect to pay for products and to be treated fairly so price your services reasonably.

5. Say Thank You
Be grateful. Thank customers for the business. Building the personal relationship will help in many areas. Errors and mistakes will occur. One can work through debacles if there is a good personal relation- ship. A regular expression of gratitude by means of a sincere thank you will help keep a strong personal relationship in good order.

24 Juicy Publicity, Social Media Tips in Free ebook, Joan Stewart

Every year the Publicity Hound, Joan Stewart publishes a free book of her best marketing and PR tips from the year. It is a great resource for improving your publicity or social media efforts. The 2011 edition is out and ready for download.

Click on this link to get your copy, http://publicityhound.net/24-juicy-publicity-social-media-tips-in-free-best-of-ebook/

Tips in the book include:
•  How to attract more Twitter followers
•  6 bios that need updating
•  3 strong reasons for joining groups on Linkedin
•  How to write a product review
•  A link to 52 Headline Hacks, this one is amazing and a great resource for writing you blog headlines

LMA NE 2011 Conference, What I Learned From the Day

This past week I attended the Legal Marketing Association's New England Regional Conference. I had a great day and learned a lot. Also the venue actually worked out pretty well, they held it at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston. The building sits across from the Boston waterfront so it has a very cool view and we even had one of the sessions in an actual courtroom. That was pretty cool. Another thing that I think helped a lot is that they take all the cell phones away from you so everyone was engaged with the event instead of their iPhone or Blackberry. No technology in this courthouse.

I took three sessions, the first was with Kevin O'Keefe of Lexblog.com and it was on how to use social media to develop your business or practice. It was excellent, I have heard Kevin before and I really enjoyed his sessions. My main take away was that on your blog not to talk about yourself all the time and all the great things you know, but to talk about what other people are talking about. To listen and bring together all of this knowledge. Contribute to the conversation not to be the conversation. A great point.

The second session was on the future of print collateral in law firms and with the explosion of social media. Not a great future for actual print from the focus of the session. This matches what I have seen in my own design world. There has been a huge shift over the last couple of years from print to web and social media. Marketing materials still have to be designed and I probably spend 80% of my time doing this but the final pieces often don't end up in print.  This shift has also been the driving force in me personally leaning lots of new skills from social media to blogging to video production for the web. The session still pointed out that collateral pieces will still be around but at a much reduced level.

The third session was on the future of legal websites 2.0. A very interesting session on what is new and how firms are using the latest technology from video, search, and mobile. A great take away from this was if you are designing a mobile website to make sure your mobile splash page has your directions and contact info on it. People are using their mobile devices to get directions and figuring out how to find your office so make sure that that information is front and center.  This was a great tip.

Overall an excellent conference and a fun day.

Analyzing Your Website from Seth Godin

Seth Godin has an excellent post today on Six Questions for Analyzing a Website, kind of give you a feel for what it is doing. Not all sites are built for building followers and making money, but if yours is then this post gets right to the point.

The main points are
1. What's the Revenue per Visit?
2. What't the Cost of getting a visit?
3. Is there a viral co-efficient?
4. What's the cost of a visitor?
5. Are there members/users?
6. What's the permission base and how is it changing?

Check out the entire post at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/11/six-questions-for-analyzing-a-website.html

Vote 2012 Presidential Election Coloring Book, New Release!

We just released a fun book coloring book for the upcoming Presidential election, Vote 2012, Presidential Election Coloring Book. A fun book for all ages to get us all involved in the process.

Get ready for the 2012 US Presidential campaign with the Vote 2012 Presidential Election Coloring Book. Containing over 50 pages you can color of pictures of the major candidates, politics, Americana, US Flags, the White House, the Capital, historical locations and election themes. Get your crayons and colored pencils out and get in on the fun. Our book is great for school students and anyone interested in following the election and the issues of the day and having a little fun.

Includes drawings of the nine main candidates: President Barack Obama for the Democrats, and the Republican Presidential Candidates for 2012: Rep. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Speaker Newt Gingrich, Ambassador Jon Huntsman, Rep. Ron Paul, Governor Rick Perry, Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Rick Santorum.

We are now live on Amazon.com for the paperback version
Vote 2012 Presidential Election Coloring Book

You can also pick up a free copy today from our eStore, for a limited time the book is free for all to download.

Bruce Jones Speaks at the 2011 Media Literacy Conference at MIT

I had a great opportunity this weekend and spoke at the 2011 Media Literacy Conference at MIT run by www.homeinc.org. The focus of the event was on youth, Learning, Collaborating and Creating the Future of Education. I spoke at an open forum and my topic was on Backpack Journalism. Talking about the equipment a solo video journalist needs to carry, tips on shooting and resources and produced a 4 page handout covering the material. It went very well, some excellent discussions on different options that you have to utilize the footage you have beyond just producing a video.

HomeInc.org is an non-organization founded by Alan Michel, that was established in 1974 with the mission to make a positive difference in the lives of young people through teaching the use of video production and media analysis to educators and youth. Their programs help students develop creative media projects that foster teamwork and communications skills and run many programs in the Boston school system.

Getting Your Email Marketing in Shape

I subscribe to a cool website on video marketing and sales called How to Sell Your Video.com lots of great advice from a couple that actually lives it. This week they sent out an excellent post on getting your email marketing ready for the holidays. One of the major points they talk about is that it use to take 6 to 7 email messages to a customer to make a sale, now it takes something like 20 emails. Clearly something that you need an Autoresponder system for. Check out aweber.com they are great for that.

This post has lots of great tips that you can incorporate today into your email marketing to help boost your results, well worth the read. Some of them include:

• Use a calender to plan out the schedule, especially if you are sending out 20 emails
• Be consistent with them, mail on a regular basis
• Use an autoresponder
• Set up a toll free number, they are getting pretty cheap these days
• Make every email meaningful

An lots more. To read the entire post, click here.

Replacment for the Google Wonder Wheel

Joan Stewart mentioned in this week's Publicity Tips that the Google Wonder Wheel is being shut down. This was a cool tool to help you find keyword phrases and relationships. A great place to get sort of a replacement is at WikiSummarizer, it uses Wikipedia for the relationships but will give you lots of topics to look at related to your topic.

Check it out at WikiSummarizer.com

Joan has tons of great tips delivered by her weekly newsletter. You can sign up at The Publicity Hound.com

Week 15. Latest Trends in our Businesses, How Have We Changed

It just never stops, people are always innovating, updating, changing, trying to be number 1 with that better product or service. If often feels like it is just zoom, zooming along. It also often feels like we are falling behind, that all the other business figured it out and somehow we missed the boat. Often this isn’t true but it sure does feel that way sometimes. How many times do we say, I just bought this equipment and it is out of date already?

Week 15. Today I want you to write about any recent changes or trends in the world or technology that are effecting your business, how is it making you change what you do, how are your customers reacting to these changes, who is driving these changes.

General Subject Lines:
How has technology changed the world and I missed it?
Latest business trends, how we have changed
Latest trends in the XYZ industry

Focus: Customer

Remember to add a picture, tags and post this to your social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Get your weekly Blog Ideas for Business and kick start your blogging, sign up on the right.

How to Market Your Business with Only One On-line Service

We had an interesting conversation going on the other day on if you only could do a couple of things to market your business what might they be.

You have a small business, what is the one thing you would do on-line to market your business, just 1 thing and your business is a physical retail store, brick and mortar?
1. Simple blog or website/backed up by Google Places

Ok your business is a services business, consulting, law firm, accounting, sales rep kind of business
1. Simple blog or website/backed up by Linkedin

Alright then we dug a little deeper, You have a small business, what are three things you might do to market your business on-line

Retail, store based, brick and mortar
1. Simple blog or website, something with the ability to add pages
2. Google places
3. Flickr or Picassa or YouTube something that can hold and link pictures/video, could be Facebook, I haven't found any business yet through Facebook, so not sure how well that is working yet to locate a business, maybe better after you already know about the business to follow it. Have had success with YouTube driving traffic to a website.

Service business, consulting, law firm, accounting, sales rep kind of businss
1. Simple blog or website
2. Google Places
3. Linkedin, could be Facebook, but I think Linkedin is more important.

Way in, how would you market your business if you only can do one thing

Some of the Best Business Advice Given to Me in My Career

My response to Week 16 of Blog Ideas

In a previous life, way before I do what I do now I worked in a high tech firm in the purchasing department for an outstanding boss named John Colclough. A tough guy, demanded a lot but taught a lot. I credit the experience under him as my real business training and 29 years later I still use his advice every day.

He had three key rules about being in business, negotiating and life in general

1. When someone comes to your home you supply the sandwiches.

2. If you are going to point a gun to someone’s head make sure the gun is loaded, that the gun has bullets in it, that you are willing to pull the trigger and most important you have the authority to pull the trigger.

And this is the one that I use all the time
3. Always look behind the person you are dealing with and see who is really in charge.

What he ment by the last one is that very often when we deal with people we aren’t really dealing with the one we are talking to but with the person that is behind them. Their boss, a spouse, some rule, but almost always someone or something we can’t see.

I have take this in a number of ways. One is to not get to upset by someone’s behavior that might seem odd or out of place to the situation, it may not be them who is really speaking. The second direction I take this that when you present something to some in a business setting, very often that person will be presenting your ideas to someone else. Make sure that person has everything they need to make a great presentation. Don’t hang them out to dry, make them look good and you will look good.

What has been amazing to me with these rules is that I have remembered them in almost exactly these words all these years and how often I think about them.

Week 16. Business Mentoring and Leadership Coaching

As we work our way through our business careers we encounter many people who give us guidance, act as mentors, and give us advice that helps us succeed. Sometimes it is a long term relationship, sometimes it is a quick slap upside our head and sometimes it is just a comment that pushes us in a new direction.

Week 16. Today I want you to write about some key business advice that you were given that helps guide you on a day to day basis.

General Subject Lines:
Business mentoring and leadership coaching
Professional coaching for building your career
Personal and professional coaching and mentoring

Focus: Guidance

Remember to add a picture, tags and post this to your social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Get your weekly Blog Ideas for Business and kick start your blogging, sign up on the right.

My Business Started in My Living Room

I started Bruce Jones Design in 1985, really the fall of 1984, but I went to Europe for 3 months at the end of the year to take a break from working and see the world. Business really started in March of 1985 from my living room in my 4 room apartment in North Cambridge. I would sit in my living room everyday from 9:00 to 5:00 every day and and try to figure out how to have a businesss.



When I began I had no clients and would spend the day starring at the phone trying to get up the courage to make some sales calls. I would sit there everyday and wouldn't come out until 5:00 unless I was out doing something related to starting the business. It was a long 6 months. In September of 1985 I volunteered at the Boston Arts Festival on the Esplanade along the Charles River. One of the reasons was to see if I could find some clients. I did and that help get things going and things slowly built from there.

Week 14. The Beginning of Your Business

All our businesses started at a specific moment in time and place. Thinking back on that lets us see the journey, how far we have come. Today we start at the beginning

Week 14. Today I want you to write about when you went into business, the date and where. Do you have a photo from that time? This is a short post, we will talk later about how and why you went into business.

General Subject Lines:
Where and When I started my business, the back bedroom
The starting of a small business, a little office above XYZ
Starting our own company

Focus: Fact

Remember to add a picture, tags and post this to your social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Get your weekly Blog Ideas for Business and kick start your blogging, sign up on the right.

Behind the Scenes Photos of Your Company

On pretty much every DVD theses days has a section on how they made the movie, filming of the filming, interviews with the directors, actors, and producers.  We are all just curious about what goes on behind the doors. This makes for great material for your blog. Just walk out into the warehouse, our to your truck, or the lab or the training room. Customers love the behind the scenes stuff.

Week 13. For today’s blog post I want you to add some pictures of your products or if you offer a service something in your office that you use to deliver your service. You can also drop in some additional images of your location, neighborhood, or staff.

General Subject Lines:
Behind the scenes photos of Company Name
The truth behind the scenes

Focus: Fact

Remember to add a picture, tags and post this to your social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Get your weekly Blog Ideas for Business and kick start your blogging, sign up on the right.

Images from around my office, mascot

Images from my office in Norwood

 Resources, manuals, and do any of you remember spray mount, we still have a can of that

Sculptures, Planes of the Head, a couple of India bronze figures, a bronze sculpture from the artist Gus Miller and a cool little rocket, Planes of the Head has been with me in every office I have had.

 Paper samples, hardly ever used anymore, a hole punch, I use that all the time, CDs

Office mascot, wooden dog sculpture by the artist Gus Miller.

I have to shoot some images from my office, will load them up shortly

Referring the Clients You Work With to People Who Need Them

We are all looking for more business, we try all kinds of new and old methods to get it including: social media, advertising, videos, networking, writing articles, going to conferences, mailings, cold calling, all kinds of strategies and techniques, it goes on and on. But if you really look at how you get most of your business if often comes down to a personal referral. Someone who works with you recommends you to someone else who needs what you do. Do your clients know what you do? do they know the other things you do?

Week 12. Today I want you to write about what is a good referral for your business. What are the words that can help your clients identify a good match for you.

General Subject Lines:
Referring the clients you work with to people who need them
I work with someone who might be able to help

Focus: Sales

Remember to add a picture, tags and post this to your social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Get your weekly Blog Ideas for Business and kick start your blogging, sign up on the right.

Referrals Still Bring in 95% of My Business

How do I get new clients? Well if I look back over the past 25 years almost all of my business has come from referrals from my existing clients, probably to the degree of almost 95% of it. I have put a lot of effort into the new media, Linkedin, blogs, website and general social media and some of it has even starting to work for me in terms of new clients finding me on the web. But personal referrals are still the single most important factor in getting new business. Thank you everyone who has done that, much appreciated.

What I have seen though is that the referrals will often go and look at the web and social medial first to figure out if I fit for their business. But it all starts with a recommendation.

What Makes a Good Referral
Ok, so what is a good referral? If someone mentions that they are looking for a new designer or someone to help with their marketing or design needs then that is someone I should talk to. I act as a lead designer and a supporting one, either one works. I work with both existing businesses and non-profits and ones just getting off the ground.

With the changing economy I have learned a lot of new skills in the past couple of years, so if someone needs video marketing, how to videos, short stories, I do a lot of that these days, from shooting to editing to getting them up on the web. I also consult and lecture on social media and get a business going on that too.

I still do all the regular print and web graphic design, including brochures, books, ads, and event graphics plus tradeshow and environmental graphics, including vehicles. If you need help give a call, or a referral.

Artwork by mfinleydesigns

What Are The Changes In Your Business, What Is The Future?

Depending on what industry you are in it can be a dizzying experience keeping up with the changes these days. If your business is technology related you just kind of hold on. But even if you are not in a business that changes all that much like maybe running a hiking tour I bet there are tools or products that you use everyday that are changing. These are all great topics to talk about to your customers, educate them on new products and explain how to use them.

Week 11. Today I want you to write about changes have been happening in your industry and what trends you see coming up in the future.

General Subject Lines:
Top new products that make my job easier
How we keep you from getting lost in the woods

Focus: Trends

Remember to add a picture, tags and post this to your social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Get your weekly Blog Ideas for Business and kick start your blogging, sign up on the right.

No More Gooey, Drippy, Sticky Services, It Is All Digital Now.

 This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, Attribution: Willi Heidelbach

The Changing Graphic Design World

It seems almost every day there is some technology change that is affecting my business. For quite a few years now I have been watching the end of what I call the sticky, gooey, drippy part of the graphic arts industry. Any part of design that was liquid or involved solvents has gone away, starting with typesetting, then printing color separations and plates, then photography with all its chemicals and now  actual printing. Everything is becoming digital and web based.

If you were into using computers this has been fun to be part of, if you owned a business based on fluids it has been a struggle. What is happening now, well since the Great Recession it has been the accelerated ending of actual printing and printed material. People still print, but so much of printed communication as moved to the web. Advertising is being replaced with social media; mailings are replaced with email blasts, video is just growing and growing.

What I Have Been Doing
On my side over the last several years it has been a process of reinvention and constant learning. I have been adding many new services and abilities to my portfolio. Services like video, and social media-consulting on and doing, web design, learning lots of new online platforms for myself and my clients. Working with platforms such as Linkedin, Facebook, Google+, blogs, Picasa, and YouTube.

Where is This Going
Where is this going, it is going all on line and moving from outside services to ourselves. I tell people that we still need to do the same stuff, market our business. But instead of using all kinds of outside services such as trade advertising, mailings and the yellow pages, services that we just kind of paid and sent stuff off to we now have to do these things ourselves. I look at it as dollars and time, we use to spend X amount of dollars with outside vendors to get Y amount of promotion, now we convert those dollars into time, and pull the effort in house. The services and marketing cost the same but aren’t there any more, now we have to do it. And we have to learn these services and manage the marketing ourselves. With it all kind of based around the online world and changing

Writing a Book, How to Do It.

Chris Brogan wrote an excellent post today on Writing a Book - Finding Time, I agree completely with his process. I have a bunch of books out and many more in process, a new one releasing this week. How do I find the time, I work around the edges. A little before the day, a little after the day, always carry a notebook, just keep chipping away, oh and don't watch a lot of TV. As Chris says, if you have time to watch TV you have time to write.

Here is his post http://www.chrisbrogan.com/writing-a-book-finding-time/

Lots of Cool Ideas for Making Web Videos

I subscribe to the Social Media Examiner.com and they had an excellent post on 29 Tips to Make Your Video Marketing Easy. Just some great ideas by different people on ways to make video. Here were some of my favorites with my followup notes:

1. Just get going, start doing it, any camera will do.
2. Set up and screen capture your story using the Google Search Story technique, pretty cool
3. Get the best, most upbeat person in your company to do the video
4. Publish on a consistent basis, these don't have to be long, just all the time
5. Mention other people in your video, promote other things, spread the love
6. Trade shows and events are great places to grab a quick industry related video.
7. How to videos Rock, video tutorials can be very powerful and very helpful to your customers. Screenflow on the Mac and Camtasia on the PC. There is also Screenr.com and Jing.com, online versions. Screenflow is worth buying a Mac just to use
8. Video responding, answer customer questions using video, have conversations using video
9. Ask your customers to respond to what you are doing using video, run a contest, have your customers make videos for something and win a prize.
10. Create a video series, one keep them short, two talk about what is coming up in the next video, three, link them all together in YouTube, make a video directory, but them all on your website, pull them all together when done and turn them into a DVD that you sell or give away
11. Embed it on your email opt-in page describing what you get by signing up.
12. Make personal videos.
13. Use YouTube Search and Suggest to find ideas for videos. Search in the YouTube search box, see the terms flying by, use this info to spark new ideas
14. Remember most videos aren't watched longer than about 20 seconds, so make sure you have all the important stuff right up front. Then repeat in longer detail
15. Use YouTube Annotations to link your videos together and to add additional info that got left out when making.
16. Remember the title, the description with a live link and then the keywords.(check out our video guide over on the right)
17. Turn you videos into podcasts, (I have to figure out how to do this)

PowerPoint Presentation on Good PowerPoint DesignViewed

Viewed a very good presentation today from Slideshare.com on Good PowerPoint Design, plus some excellent resources from Alex Osterwalder. PhD.

Key points are:
1. One idea per slide
2. Two fonts per presentation
3. Three levels of bullet points are too much
4. Use white space generously

Good PowerPoint Design - for business presenters

View more presentations from Alexander Osterwalder

Some of the books mentioned for further resources:
Clear & to the Point, by Stephen M. Kosslynn
Beyond Bullet Poits by Cliff Atkinson
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design by Garr Reynolds
Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte
Storytelling in Organizations by Yiannis Gabriel
The Back of the Napkin by Don Roam
The Psychology of Influence of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
The Leaders Guide to Storytelling by Stephen Denning

All of these are available on Amazon

Essential Resources I Use to Run My Business

A lot of us have built over time a list of advisers and resources that we turn to, to keep us up to date on our industry, our markets, just general business info etc, info that keeps up tapped in. This information can come from a mentor, magazines, newsletters on and off line, websites, all kinds of places. This info is helpful not only for ourselves but can also be for people in our circles, why not share.


Week 10. Today I want you to write about some of the great web or other resources that you use in your business, drop in the links for all to see, we should be able to come up with 5.

Give a short description of each and why you like them. This can be one longer post or it can be several. Also we often have different resources for different parts of our business, these can be broken down into individual posts.


General Subject Line:
Essential Resources I Use to Run My Business

Focus: RESOURCES

Remember to add a picture, tags and post this to your social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Get your weekly Blog Ideas for Business and kick start your blogging, sign up on the right.

How I Keep On Top, Essential Resources I Use to Run My Business

It has been a fascinating and challenging time in the graphic design, marketing world. Over the last several years my world has gone from almost all print related design to web related everything. How you market your business still has some print parts, but all kinds of new marketing channels have entered the picture, email, video, web, social media, Facebook, Google +, on and on. It is changing on a daily basis and takes a constant effort to stay on top of it and try to integrate these changes into my business and on to my clients.

The world is moving from outside services that we use to hire to many of us having to do all of these things ourselves. So here are 5 resources that I currently call on to guide me through the changes. All of these are free subscriptions that I receive by email.

My Top 5

Mashable.com
Mashable is one of the leading news sites on technology, social media, marketing, video, all things web and business related. They have at least 12 different topics that they write on, I follow the Social Media feed. Very well organized keeps you up to date.
http://mashable.com


Chris Brogan
Chris is one of those amazing people that you just can’t believe can know so much and write so much. Chris writes on business, new technology, being in business, being human and relating to your customers.
http://www.chrisbrogan.com


Joan Stewart and Publicity Hound
Every Tuesday I receive an email from Joan on PR and Marketing related topics, short, to the point, and topics on things I can actually do as a small business owner. I recommend Joan Stewart to everyone
http://www.publicityhound.com


PaidContent.org
The world is changing dramatically if you are a publisher or a writer. We don’t need publishers anymore, anyone can write, market, sell and deliver books all over the world. I have 7 books out there and almost 30 in the pipeline. PaidContent.org writes on the economics and business of digital content and keeps me up to date on the changes.
http://paidcontent.org/


Ed Dale
Ed Dale is the creator of the 30 Day Challenge, one of the best resources to learn about online marketing, The Challenge will be starting again in September, I highly recommend it. He is an amazing marketer and I learn from him by following what he does and what he writes about. Most of the online marketing and video efforts I do stated with Ed. He can be a little out there but one of my top five
http://www.eddale.co
http://www.challenge.co/blog/

Response for Week 10