It is widely understood that a content management system allows you to both edit the current content of your site and add new content using the provided templates. One advantage of a CMS that’s not that widely known is personalization. Instead of sending everyone to your homepage and hoping that they connect the dots properly, you can create custom “mini-sites” for each prospect, using hand-picked samples to show how you meet their particular needs.  Using a CMS in this way evolves your website from an informational brochure to a …

Quick Response (QR) Codes are the next step in integrating the physical and digital worlds. With a click and an app anyone can use their smartphone to read one of these matrix style bar codes. We have had good luck with i-nigma 4 on the iPhone and QR Droid on the Android OS.

And generating a bar code for a website, phone number, SMS, or block of text can be just as easy. I use http://qrcode.kaywa.com/, but there are many options available.

The QR codes were originally developed by Denso-Wave in Japan to …

Enchantment and the Economy of Reciprocation
I once heard that a typical audience member will by entranced by 1/3 of a performance. On Thursday, March 24, I discovered it was entirely false.

That’s when I witnessed Guy Kawasaki presenting to the Commonwealth Club of California, and I was captivated from beginning to end.

For those of you unfamiliar with Guy Kawasaki, he was part of the original Macintosh marketing team and is now an author, blogger, venture capitalist, and master of simplicity and charm. Kawasaki was introducing his new book, which …

Some business owners have found that review sites such as Yelp! and Google Maps can be a boon for business, while others have developed a love/hate relationship with them.

Well, love the fact that customers can go online and express their opinion about an experience with your business or hate the fact that prospects and search engines alike are making reviews a key data point when making decisions about your business, they don’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

Read the entire article at www.openforum.com

Are you planning on sending holiday greetings to your clients and colleagues? Here are some thoughts to keep in mind:
Plan ahead. “Ahead” as in right now.
It takes time to prepare and send a holiday greeting, and the deadlines are drawing nigh. You’ve got to:

• Make a list and check it twice (because you might want to differentiate who-gets-what).
• Write a suitable message (or more than one message).
• Choose stationary if your plan to use postal mail.
• Choose a suitable email template if you plan to email.
• Allow time to format your message, including sending yourself a  test message to make sure it looks spruce.

Pick a …

One of the major benefits of Social Media is how it can significantly improve search engine rankings—if done with SEO in mind.

I have been reading “Social Media for Business—101 Ways to Grow Your Business without Wasting Your Time” and came across a handy table with a list of which social media content gets indexed by search engines and which does not.

It’s important to know what content gets indexed and also to realize that this might change… what gets indexed today might not get indexed tomorrow and vice versa.

Here’s the list from the book (which was published in August …

Earlier this month Google unleashed its newest search innovation, instant search. Every single keystroke will trigger a different search function based on Google’s popular auto-complete function.
What Does Google Instant Change About Searching the Web
Let’s be honest, Google Instant is a wonderful innovation for anyone who likes conducting research online. There is effectively no delay in search time, and your search results will get refined with every single touch of your keyboard. In essence, Google Instant lets you the searcher decide when your results are sufficiently on-task to justify following the revealed links.
What Google Instant Will Do To …

Nowadays information comes at us in a flood. Multiple TV stations run news 24-7, Twitter provides an unending stream of two line summaries of the universe, and no matter what topic interests you, there will never be a dearth of relevant blogs bringing out yet more stats and figures.

Sometimes it would be nice of somebody would just stop and take the time to take all this data that our ever expanding infosphere has made available, and turn it into something understandable.

Worry not: relief is in sight!

Designers and data analysts from around the web have been finding ways to fit …

What is Social Media?
Social Media is a vehicle to share information with a broad audience twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In addition to being any form of online publication or presence that allows users to engage in multi-directional conversations, it is a way to build relationships with the public. Online tools allow businesses to keep in touch with customers and easily update them on what’s new, whether it is products, services, events, an interesting insight or a new hire to the team. Basically, Social Media is the “wave of the now.”
What to know about Social Media
Social Media …

Well, we finally made it to Facebook. Just like any other small business, we struggled with the decision of whether or not to have a presence in Facebook. It’s free to start; it’s simple to use… but the reality is that it’s an investment of internal resources—mostly time. But given the staggering statistics of how much Facebook is used, we decided to give it a shot. Here’s how we did it.
1. We decided on content
We took this as an opportunity to have a balance of work-related posts and fun/personal ones with the goal of showing the world who we are …