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Sometimes, you don't know what you don't know until it's pointed out to you.  Until you miss something you can't easily get back.  Until it's too late. Do you know - In business How satisfied are your employees with their daily work? Whether employees understand exactly how they contribute to an end product or business growth? Does every individual understand the downstream effect of what they do (or don't do)? What your people are really thinking about the way things are run? Why...

Content can be a wonderful thing. It can illuminate the unknown, introduce a concept, immerse a reader into a conjured time, place, or frame of mind. Like a time machine that inserts you Right There. In the midst of things. Good content flows seamlessly from first introduction (say, a Home page) to closing thought (maybe a Contact Us page). It feels like it stems from a single source. It wraps you in a comfortable, pleasing cloak. It's more than maintaining brand messages or established tone...

When a consumer wants to learn more about eco-friendly cleaning services, where do they go?  When they want to find a good pediadentist near their kid’s school, what do they do?  The answer, of course, is the Web. Research indicates that peer reviews – recommendations made by friends or family – are extremely influential to a buyer’s decision-making.  A thumbs-up sign from someone who’s bought from Company X or Brand Y is like the Everyman’s Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Those...

Nick Bergus is a teacher, a foodie, a writer, a videographer, and new media creator.  He has business sense, a creative flair and an unflappable 'approachability' factor that makes intellectual discussions entertaining and satisfying at the same time.  And he's my second guest for the 10 In 10 Vlog series.  I'm thrilled he had a few minutes to chat with me about journalism, new media, pay walls, and steeped traditional professions like hog farming in Iowa. Nick believes that multimedia tells...

5 Lies Social Media { fill in the blank } Tell Their Clients "I've been doing this a long time." "Do you have anything new going on?  That's what we need to focus on." "It's okay that the folks in <xyz department> don't 'get' social media. We don't need them." "I can have <your brand> up and running in no time." "Once I've set everything up, its pretty minimal upkeep from there." First, the terms {"expert," "guru," "maven"} and the like just don't belong in a job title. ...

A colleague and I were recently discussing some features of Facebook pages.  An example frequently cited as a well-designed page (in the creative/app sense) is PINK by Victoria’s Secret.  With 1,702,953 fans, this branded page certainly has an audience with its target demographic – late teen-to-mid 20-aged women and to a lesser extent, the males in their lives (not to mention males who simply appreciate the lingerie maker’s, er, assets). If you notice the brand’s wall, you’ll see a host...

The plus-sized model isn't aspirational enough for the brand. We need someone attractive, but not too. The target for our dog food product is a married female, and in the photo you're using there's no wedding ring. All the copy must be in French and English. Disclaimer sections, too. We won't have the focus group results for another 4 weeks but need you to begin concepting now. Can you make it Christmas-y without using red? Or using the word 'Christmas'? A friend shared this hilarious...

Last year, I published a post of of links to 2009 prediction posts made by others. This year, I've collected over 55 prediction/forecast posts and a slew of review/analysis posts (both on 2009 and the decade). As we close one year and breathe a collective, fortifying breath before propelling into the next, its important that we take measure of pressures, events, and developments across a spectrum of input areas shaping life and business: economic, political, technological, philosophical, cultural,...

*Trust* is the bonding agent which connects business and customer together. I'll Spell It Out Trust:  a relationship of reliance. Relationship:  "...is managing and nurturing a company's interactions with its customers...The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new customers, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former customers back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and customer service." Reliance:  "...a system's ability to maintain its functions...

We used to think a lot about impressions. Now we think more about views, clicks, friends, and followers.  We think about sharability, portability, and usability. As a brand, the bottom-line objective is still to convince (and convert) a group to your worldview.  To divert the Pepsi fan to the Coke community.  To offer the kind of experience that touches a personal value and strikes a strong emotion. The tactics and tools have changed, and so have the metrics.  We now have the kind of the profiling...