Month: February 2010

  • The reason why your personal brand sucks

    Mitch Joel recently highlighted the army of clones out there that are all trying to use the same personal brand, thus more or less killing personal branding. He’s dead on. Go search for the number of social media experts on Twitter to see just how much personal branding has turned into Attack of the Clones.…

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  • How do you know where to pay per click?

    Pay per click (PPC) advertising is a great way to juice up a campaign in the short term. It’s also a really great way to lose a metric crapton of money in a hurry if you don’t know what you’re doing, especially if you’re a small, local business with a limited budget. Let’s look at…

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  • How to power up your Twitter

    Watch this short 3 minute video to learn how to tie together Twiangulate, TweepML, and a text editor for maximum Twitter fun and power. Want to boost your following with people who have interesting things to say? Want to find new insights? Try out this method. It’s in HD, so full screen should give you…

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  • What You Need to Succeed in Social Media

    As both a practitioner and teacher of social media stuff, it’s interesting to see what people ask for, what people ask to be taught, what other teachers view as important. Here’s an unpleasant truth to social media: Most of what you need to be successful has nothing to do with social media. We focus a…

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  • Stupid Simple Salsa

    Salsa. One of my favorite snacking condiments, one of the most overpriced jars you’ll ever find on a supermarket shelf. A recent price check at my local supermarket put a small jar of salsa around $5, which is insane given the cost of materials. So let’s say farewell to absurd prices and make our own…

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  • Recommended: Scarborough Fair Bed and Breakfast, Baltimore, MD

    Recommended: Scarborough Fair Bed and Breakfast, Baltimore, MD There are few places in the world of hospitality that I’d actually recommend. Most of the places I’ve stayed – and there have been many – were sufficient to be a place where I’d get some sleep and a bite to eat, but nothing else. Hotel chains…

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  • What World of Warcraft's Lunar New Year Can Teach You About Growth

    In World of Warcraft, there are seasonal holidays that roughly correspond to real world holidays. One of these holidays is Lunar New Year. In the Warcraft version of the holiday, in addition to fireworks, there’s a quest to defeat a gigantic two-headed demon named Omen. Last year, I and the friends I play with took…

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  • Three Nearly Guaranteed Moneymaking Twitter Words

    Ever notice the giant pile of social media “experts” who don’t have two nickels to rub together? Ever wonder why? They spend a hell of a lot more time talking than listening. They labor under the mistaken belief that the more you talk, the more money you’ll make as a social media expert, and I…

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  • Why Google Buzz is brilliant and deadly to social media 1.0

    From the moment it launched, Google Buzz generated buzz: OMG another social network to manage OMG there’s too much noise OMG this is so redundant And for the early adopters, it’s exactly that and more. It’s noise. It’s clutter. It’s brilliant. Here’s why. Google wants the best of the best data. Remember this. They are…

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  • The 3 Benefits We Care About

    Tony Corinda, the famous magician and mentalist, wrote in his classic textbook 13 Steps to Mentalism that there are three general topics which nearly everyone wants psychic predictions on. Knowing these makes the job of a mentalist on stage incredibly easy, as just providing the hook into any of the topics gets people talking about…

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