People are always asking us how powerful a branding tool blogs can be, so today you get your answer people!  Perhaps the best example of this power can be found in the popularity of fashion blogs and the bloggers who write them. They are r-e-d HAUTE right now!

When you see a blog post, a website, a Facebook page, or a piece of mail, what do you notice first?

Cool fonts?  Maybe.

Great copy? Probably not right away.

The pictures? You got it!

The other day I was riding my bike through the park when I noticed three gorgeous parrots sitting on top of a fence surrounding the playground. I was intrigued because you don’t see that kind of thing around here very often, so I took a quick detour to go check it out. On my way into the playground, one of the birds greeted me with a loud “HELLO!” from high atop the fence. I wasn’t expecting that (Duh!  Parrots…talking…who knew?) and I admit it scared the heck out of me, but once I got over myself, I noticed how much attention these birds were attracting.

We should be ashamed of ourselves for writing such a silly title!

But there it is.  It’s too late to change it now.

What the heck is a brand evangelist? 

The name sounds like it describes some sort of crazy-eyed, obsessed person, doesn’t it? It does, but honestly, this person is your company’s best friend.

Have you thought about starting a blog for your website?  Do you know how to spell the word B-L-O-G but you don’t know what to actually put in one?  Well, you’ve come to the right place because today we’re talking about branded content! 

Perhaps the best way to explain Social Media is to break it down a little bit.  Printed media like a newspaper is a one-way communication—you read it but you don’t tell it what you thought of the article. Maybe you call a friend and tell them about it, but you don’t sit there talking directly to your newspaper. 

If you do talk to your newspaper, we’ll just back away slowly and let you continue…

Ahem.

With the New Year upon us, it’s once again time to look back and learn from the trials and tribulations of year past. Can you recall the goals you set this time last year? Do you feel confident that you accomplished what you set out to do? Is your team amped up for a successful new year?

Now that we've identified the strengths of your small business (February) and discussed how to create a game plan that makes the most of those strengths (March), it's time to put that game plan into action.

Step 3. Execute and evolve that plan, and continue to build momentum.

Your game plan will be unique to your business, industry and personality type. Whether you're playing Monopoly, chess or LIFE (see March column), your plan can succeed only if it's actually carried out.