Content Strategy within the Design Process is an excellent article written by Brad Shorr at Smashing Magazine on how: Content Strategy is the glue that holds a project together AND that language influences behavior.

I loved how Brad gave an objective overview of how content is an emerging practice area that needs recognition and integration into the development process from the beginning -- and through -- any digital project or initiative. If anything, you need to read the barter and exchange of team members during the process - hillarious and spot-on!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Likewise, Brad provides a compelling infographic [right] as well as additional resources on the subject:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR - David Meerman Scott
Explains content strategy better than anyone. The third edition was published in July 2011.

Content Strategy - Google Knol
For a thorough overview of content strategy and links to books, blogs and other resources, check out this fantastic Knol.

Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices - Jacob Gube
To promote creative compatibility, designers and writers alike should study this Smashing Magazine article.

Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management - Jakob Nielsen
For insight into design-related project management, read this post by the brilliant Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen.

Lastly, you need to subscribe to Smashing Magazine’s network or obtain their free five year anniversary eBook here! Well worth the download and/or sharing with others.
                                                                                                                (Image credit: Chris Depa, Straight North)

Best,
Denice MacDonald

Earned Media is basically free media. Earned Media specifically refers to publicity gained through editorial influence and has become the backbone of many social media initiatives and social content development strategies.

With so much user generated content these days, it would behoove an organization not to take advantage of the magnitude of earned media – integrating an earned media strategy during content conception into execution.

Definition

To get the definitions out of the way, those in the marketing and agency world are privy to the buzzwords “paid,” “earned” and owned.” Traditionally, they stand for the different types of media and can be easily broken down like this:

• Paid: Buying a 30-second Super Bowl spot
• Earned: Coverage on Mashable (aka user word of mouth)
• Owned: Your company’s website

The business case for Earned Media

Don’t forget all content — whether it’s text, a video or a microsite — will be “reduced to a link” for social spheres making Earned Media an easy thing to do. There were 500 billion word-of-mouth impressions made by Americans online according to Forrester. Such volumes of word-of-mouth marketing can spread awareness of a product incredibly quickly, and it’s why earned media has become so important to a marketing campaign.

Understanding its usage

Let’s run through a scenario. Earned Media, for example, is what you get when you develop a connection with someone that’s compelled to write a Yahoo review, a blog post, a comment or a tweet, sharing their thoughts on your brand with their social network. It sounds simple but it does take forethought.

Specifically, you will need to develop a strategy at content conception and then filter everything through its earned potential. That is, did I get the right audience, is the content compelling to share (good or bad) and do we make it easy to ‘syndicate’ the efforts (share tools, icons, other channels and formats) and, most importantly, does it integrate nicely as a natural springboard from traditional paid or owned media?

More on Earned Media:

For Social Media Marketing, Earned Media Rules -- MediaPost

How Social Media is Changing Paid, Earned and Owned Media -- Mashable

Defining Earned, Owned And Paid Media – Forrester Blogs

Best

Denice MacDonald

Had to make this recommendation! CMO.com is an excellent resource for professional marketers with little time on their hands who need access to current trends and digital marketing ideas.

Specifically, CMO.com offers digital marketing insight for chief marketing officers. It has four major sections:

1. News -- Headlines about digital marketing news, trends, announcements, marketing analytics, marketing resources, marketing Web sites, blog marketing, and other information about digital marketing and key players in the digital marketing space
2. Insight -- Articles, reports, surveys, statistics, commentary from industry experts, and other digital marketing resources that have a relatively long "shelf life"
3. Blogs -- Select posts about blog marketing from influential bloggers, other CMOs, and industry publications
4. CMO Perspectives -- Interviews with leading CMOs, findings from surveys of marketing executives, and a listing of industry events for CMOs and their staff.

Easy to Navigate!

Select articles from these sections are shown on the CMO.com home page. Additionally, each section has an "index page" that lists all articles for that section. Drop-down menus allow you to browse articles that cover more than 70 specific digital marketing topics, including: brand marketing strategy, email marketing strategy, mobile marketing strategy, news marketing, search marketing, social marketing, video marketing strategy, Web blogs, and Web site marketing strategy.

I strongly suggest you connect with this great resource!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring their web metrics strategy by how many web pages that were viewed or by how many people that have visited. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.

Whether its website traffic analysis, search engine optimization or tracking business success metrics, you need to develop a web strategy ‘up front’ to support measurement objectives. This thought process seems so fundamental but rarely exercised.  Take these simple rules:

A strategic plan for evaluating your website will help you:

1. Collect only the data you need to make informed, strategic decisions
2. Identify priority “action areas” for improvement, measure the impact of those actions -- and keep your customers coming back
3. Determine benchmarks and performance goals you should aspire to, and the extent to which you’re achieving them
4. Determine whether you’re getting a return on the investment you’ve made to build, operate and maintain your website(s)
5. Evaluate how well your website is performing relative to competitors, your company's brand, mission statement or hiring criteria

Develop a plan – a strategy – and review and adjust it regularly by asking these questions:

• What do you need to measure
• What are your requirements
• How will you measure it
• What tools will you use
• What methodologies are needed to gather the data you need
• What will you do with the results
• How will the results help meet the goals for your website and your company's mission
• How does the plan fit with your company's overall strategic and performance plan

Once armed with this process and validation, you will find that your ROI exceeds expectations. 

Great Resources:

Coremetrics Web Metrics
Get powerful website metrics with the leading provider.

Web Measurement Data Fast
ClickTracks web measurement shows behavior, conversion, groups, SEO.

WebTrends Analytics
Marketing Intelligence Solutions, leading analytic & metrics software.

Web Analytics
Compare web analytics products and get a free report sample from CMS Watch.

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
If you have an interest in measuring the success of your website, then this book is definitely for you!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

On average, customers lose anywhere from 10-20% of their existing client base from mismanagement or simple neglect. 

How do you keep clients while winning new ones? Staying connected - tradition methods still work.  Here are a few simple rules to keep clients happy and coming back for more:

• Email is a great way to stay connected to your clients - but a call or meeting (regardless of a project) will go a long way in staying connected. In fact, invite a client to a seminar, event or other gathering of similar interests or needs. The more time you spend with your client, the more you can connect with them on a personal basis.

• Ask your clients opinion on new products or services.  Clients are your best critics and their input will help you in the long run.

• Keep up with your clients competition and share ideas. Use google alerts or other online clipping service to stay ahead of the competition and show you're vested in your client's success in the marketplace.

• Acknowledge clients by asking for their testimonial or inclusion in your next press release or case study. Send them a copy of what is created along with a personalized note thanking them for their valued contribution. More than likely during the conversation, you can ask for a referral!

Lastly, be honest with your client. If you feel there is a rough spot or a misstep on project expectations, address the situation immediately.   

You've spent a lot of time building up your reputation and image both online and off, so it's important to make sure that someone or something has not jeopardized your brand.

One of the simplest and easiest ways to track your reputation is to use Google Alerts. With this free service, you can search either all of Google's properties, or you can specify that only News, Blogs, Web, Video, or Groups is searched. You can then configure the Alerts results to be emailed to you either as it happens, once a day, or once a week. There is also a page where you can edit the alerts once they are created or delete them when they are no longer in use. 

If making a good name for yourself online is a priority, it's time to take a proactive approach to getting your name out there the way you want.  

BUSINESS SOCIAL NETWORKS – Complete your profile in its entirety and connect with key professionals in your network.

BLOGS – Consider a business blog and one that you contribute to – showing you are a thought leader will aid in elevating you or your products in your industry. Likewise, use blogs to amend or respond to bad hype.

WEB 2.0 PR – Get news interviews, podcasts, webinars with clients 'live' online. Third party testimonials by key constituents regarding your products and services will go a long way in building brand reputation.

LINKING – If you have a web site, consider carefully where and how inbound and outbound links are connected – bad links will reflect poorly on your brand.

SUB-DOMAINS - Add a sub-domain for careers, corporate and/or product info for little or no cost.  Not only will sub-domains elevate your search results but add depth to your reputation.

PPC/ONLINE ADVERTISING – This can only help protect your brand and will help influence visitors to see who is the real website that should be visited.

SEARCH - Take control of the visible results of any search related to your brand. By taking a coordinated approach to search engine optimization, you take greater control of the other nine slots.  

FREE MONITORING TOOLS:

Similarly to Google Alerts, Yahoo! Pipes is also a good tool for aggregating and combining feeds into one central repository.

Using Twitter search you can locate any instances of your name and decide whether you want to tweet back or ignore them. 

If you have a blog, then you have to be on Technorati. Technorati tracks “blog reactions,” or blogs that link to yours. Search for your brand on Technorati, and subscribe to RSS alerts so that when someone blogs about you, you find out.

Yacktrack lets you search for comments on your content from various sources, such as Blogger, Digg, FriendFeed, Stumbleupon, and Wordpress blogs.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Internet Explorer 9, or IE 9, features a number of enhancements over the current edition, including support for hardware acceleration, a slimmed-down interface, full compatibility with Web standards like HTML5, and better privacy controls.  

However, is it advisable to dump Internet Explorer 8 before all the kinks are ironed out for IE 9? 

Read on… 

NetworkWorld does a good job of outlining six enticing features of IE 9 but is cautious about Microsoft’s ability to flush out and fix some potential glitches as forseen in the beta version. 

Read the full article here:
6 Things We Like About IE 9 (and six not so much) 
.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     . 

The good news, according to MSN's TechnoLog, is that IE 9 will rekindkle browser wars.  

Read the full article here:
Changes to Internet Explorer 9 May Rekindle Browser Wars 
.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     . 

What am I doing? I’ll continue to more research before downloading. 

Read more here:
Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate: what's new, what's changed?
.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     . 

After participating in several webinars this week, I continue to hear that corporate blogs are still the hub for many social media intiatives. And, anyone who has a vested interest in a corporate blog knows it takes time and effort to produce a great blog - especially if it is the cornerstone for most of your corporation's social media content.

Here are my 'must-haves' for a successful corporate blog:

Blogger shows enthusiasm for his/her blog. If it's written to fill space, I can tell. I’m only interested in blogs that surprise, delight, amuse and inform offering a unique view into your organization.

The blog is well written. I read certain blogs because I not only enjoy reading them, but I’m truly getting information that is important to me – in a style of writing that is more conversational and with the bloggers point of view (good or bad) in mind.

The blog has links to other blogs, newsfeeds or other relevant information. I want to know that this blog is going to get me the next relevant click of information. I love resources, links back to other blogs and creditable information so that I can understand the bloggers opinion or slant.

The blog is updated regularly. There’s nothing worse than finding a great blog only to find out that the blogger blogs on a sporadic basis. I want a blog to be committed to me, the reader, by providing ongoing, updated content – especially if I have subscribed to their feeds. 

The blog embraces comments and feedback. I welcome an opportunity to comment on content and provide my opinion on topics. More sophisticated blogs allows sign in and the ability to post comments making the blog very interactive and viral in nature. Corporations can reply (in kind) - especially to diffuse any negative connotation about the organization or its products and services.

The blog is properly tagged and categorized. Make it easy for me to move around your blog, clicking on other categories or relevant tags.

Great Blogging Resource at Amazon:

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

More Great Bloggers:

The Rules Behind Creating a Great Blog by Tom Hung, ProBlogger

27 Tips for Building a Kick-ass Blog by Ahmed Bilal

What Makes a Great Company Blog by Mack Collier

Best

Denice MacDonald

If your website content is out of date, off-brand, and out of control, you're missing a huge opportunity to engage, convert, and retain customers online regardless of that new and shiny social media plan you are about to launch.
 
Without meaningful content, your website isn't worth much to your key audiences or viable for syndication to your various communities. Creating and caring for meaningful content is far more complicated than we're often willing to acknowledge.  

Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson explains how to create and deliver useful, usable content for your online audiences, when and where they need it most.

It also shares content best practices so you can get your next website redesign right, on time and on budget.  

For the first time, you will:

1.  See content strategy and its business value
2.  Find out why so many web projects implode in the content development phase
3.  Learn how to audit and analyze content
4.  Make smarter, achievable decisions about which content to create and how
5.  Find out how to maintain consistent, accurate, compelling content over time
6.  Get solid, practical advice on staffing for content-related roles and responsibilities

To order this book, simply go to Amazon now. You can also download it to your ebook here. 

More about Kristina Halvorson:

Website: Brain Traffic 

Blog: Content Comes First

RSS: Sign up for Feed

Twitter: Follow Kristina 

Best
Denice MacDonald 

[Credit: Book description modified from Amazon.com]

I have several hundred true blog followers to my website and they have been thirsty for knowledge on social media, search engine optimization and anything metrics – 30,000 page views to be exact.  

Therefore, I feel it necessary to provide the following links that represent the most clicked, viewed and downloaded blogs from my website for 2010 – just in case anyone needs these resources again. 

Top 2010 Blogs (ranked in order by page views) 

Staying Nimble: Social Media 2010 - According to several leading experts, social media has been the number one priority in 2010. Social media will be used by organizations to lift their brand, stay connected to customers while using networks to grow their lead-gen pipelines. To learn how your organization can capitalize on what others are doing, check out these ‘top’ resources, articles and blogs from leading subject matter experts.  

Don’t Miss This One: Connecting Social Media and Email - I find it interesting that most organizations don’t realize that e-mail marketing is the original ‘backbone’ of social interaction and should always be part of the social mix.  Simply adding some ‘integrated’ content will aid in elevating your brand – not to mention ROI for your social campaigns. 

Get it here: Search Engine Optimization Blogs - Great post by Hubspot on a few dozen SEO blogs everyone should read or minimally have in your arsenal.

Social Media Resources You Can’t Live Without - Whether it’s starting a social media campaign, integrating social media into your advertising or simply setting up a Facebook fan page, it is always wise to seek out experts who have proven experience (and metrics) to help guide you in your social media initiatives. 

Social Analytics: The Next Frontier - Let’s face it folks, social analytics is a new frontier – not anything like the analytics and metrics tracking we’ve used for advertising, direct mail or other one-way channel marketing.

Get It Right The First Time: Web Metrics - Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring their web metrics strategy by how many web pages that were viewed or by how many people that have visited. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.  

Writing for Social Media - If you want consistent social media success, you have to understand what social media users crave. For social media content, that means understanding the type of content social media users want.

Your Entire Organization Benefits From Web Analytics - You finally launched a much-anticipated Web 2.0+ web site and you can’t wait to hunker down and review your analytics. How do you gauge if your analytics for your site are appropriate, measurable and definable? And most importantly, who in your organization would benefit?    

As we move forward in 2011, it will be fun to watch the exploding world of social media and how it will affect all channels in the marketing mix.  

Happy New Year to all my blog fans and a hearty welcome to all new visitors. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

My favorite web resource, Website Magazine, has just posted the top 20 books for web pro’s for 2011. With a mix of social media, SEO and metrics, the list is quite rich with resources for everyone -- including programmers and web designers. 

A special thank you to Website Magazine for this list and all the other knowledge they share throughout the year! 

Website Magazine's list of 2010's Top 20 Tomes for Web Pro's

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics (2nd Edition) - Brian Clifton
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing - Kristopher B. Jones
Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy - Vanessa Fox
Ultimate Guide to Pay-Per-Click Advertising - Rich Stokes
The Zen of Social Media Marketing - Shama Kabani
The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success - Lon Safko
Advanced Google AdWords - Brad Geddes
Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers - Khalid Saleh
Content Rules - Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman, David Meerman Scott
Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know - Mark Jeffery
Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media - Liana Evans
Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements - Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, Spike Jones
The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: -  Patrick McNeil
White Space is Not Your Enemy - Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen
Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates - Clint Eccher
Dreamweaver CS5: The Missing Manual - David Sawyer McFarland
Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design (Voices That Matter) - Giles Colborne
Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter) - Cennyd Bowles and James Box
Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter) - Colleen Jones
Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are - Cindy Krum 

Of course, do remember that the best way to improve your chances of success (this holiday season and beyond) is to request a PRO-level subscription to Website Magazine.  

For a limited time, they're offering a 25% discount on subscriptions (that's 60% off the newsstand price).

Learn more about Website Magazine's Holiday Promotion here.

Best to you this holiday season!
Denice MacDonald

Hot off the press from The Wall Street Journal: Google said it is launching Google eBooks, its long-anticipated digital bookselling enterprise.

The Wall Street Journal commented that the venture, now rolling out across the Web with hundreds of thousands of popular titles for sale and millions more free, will compete for a slice of the digital books business, which is valued at close to $1 billion and is expected to grow in the comming years. 

Google eBooks, formerly called Google Editions, represents another opportunity for the Web giant to go toe-to-toe with two of its powerful rivals, Apple and Amazon and to open up a new stream of revenue outside of online advertising.

How to Find Free Books on Google Books

To begin your search for free eBooks, bookmark Google Books Advanced Book Search. If you have a specific book, author, or topic in mind, you can start at this search page and fine tune your potential results. You do not need to fill in every box on the search page.

More buzz and resources:

From USA Today: Google opens eBook store; competes with Amazon and Apple

From Eweek.com: Google eBook Service Launching to Challenge Amazon, Apple

From Suite101.com: How to Download Free eBooks from Google Books for an Amazon Kindle

Best
Denice MacDonald

I read with glee this morning an article published by PC World titled Google Search Engine Now Detects Bad Businesses. You have to love Google for this latest move.

Basically, Google has acknowledged modifying its search engine so it can identify businesses that provide bad service and lower their search results rankings accordingly. 

Believe it or not, some companies actually get elevated rankings when customers post poor reviews or have an extremely poor user experience. 

What prompted all the hype? 

Google took action after a recent story in The New York Times that detailed the tactics of an online eyeware store owner who claimed his site's high Google rankings were directly proportional to the many complaints posted by upset customers. 

I applaud Google for this latest move – it helps to keep the small, honest guy ahead of the pack while punishing companies that abuse their customers.

More on this topic:

From MSNBC: Google sucker-punches online retail bully

Best
Denice MacDonald

Gifting during the holidays is always a conundrum for businesses - who should we gift, what should it be and how much should it cost? Businesses are fearful of gifts that look too self-promoting and others are concerned about it being too personal. Here are a few tips that may help you decide what is appropriate for your business. 

Non-profits need gifting 

A recent examination of charitable giving during recession years in America shows that a slowing economy definitely affects donations to non-profit organizations. This is the perfect year to make donations on behalf of your clients AND employees. Making donations to charities will be a win-win for all types of clients - at all levels. Use either a very simple postcard to communicate the gifting or manage the gifting online. Follow-up in January with the results of your giving - a great way to reconnect post holiday.  

Limited budget 

Nearly everyone loves receiving edible gifts and they work nicely for individuals and groups. Give food gifts such as chocolate or fruit baskets, special cookies, and even wines. Most products might have a limited shelf life and need to be distributed quickly - so use your sales staff to make a face-to-face - no sales talk, just holiday well wishes. 

Getting creative 

Consider partnering with a major retailer on gift giving. Starbucks, for example, will work with corporate companies on designing a custom gift card. This way the gift AND card are combined (most holiday cards with company imprint can run up to $5 a piece).

Likewise, if you have out of town customers, consider a gift certificate from Dale and Thomas Popcorn - they also do customization. 

Resources: Corporate gifting etiquette   

What Happens to Giving During a Recession?                            

The Giving Institute and Giving USA Corporate Gift Giving Tips: Corporate Customer Gift & Business Gifts

Non-profits

Global Giving  

Recommended food gift sites

Figi's

Starbucks

Dale and Thomas Popcorn 

Exclusive, high-end gift giving

Simon Pearce

Best,

Denice MacDonald

[Image Credit: http://thefabulousgiver.com/]

Colleagues of mine talked so much during a recent presentation that they 'bought back the sale' - that is, the project was theirs for the taking, but insistent conversation and over confidence about their deliverables turned the prospect off.  Within minutes of the presentation, my colleagues received a declination e-mail saying the prospect went with another vendor. They asked me what went wrong. 

I’ve been both a marketing and sales professional with more sales calls under my belt than I would like to admit. I’ve had the rare opportunity to manage all types of sales professionals – engaging each based on their various ‘sales’ gifts. One type is very technical – having the ability to talk forever on the technical aspects of a product or service feature. Another is highly sociable – providing anecdotes and keen insight on the latest sports conundrum or talking freely about the latest stock market debacle. What years of wisdom and street-smarts can I provide to these professionals (and my colleagues above) – who on many levels ‘think they are doing it right’? 

It’s really this simple, stupid! 

Embrace the warm-up – Often times we delve too quickly into a conversation, meeting or presentation without some type of warm-up.  It’s imperative that you do your homework and find some key nugget about everyone in the room. Engaging everyone in the room in the first five minutes will dictate if you get the next hour with them. Check out their web site – great information on the company and the employees can be found in their blog, careers or community section. Remember, it's all about them - not you. 

Start listening – It's the key to any relationship. Trust me, this has been a hard one for me as I can in every case ‘already see the end product or service’ in play.  It’s imperative that you ask open ended questions to engage prospects and customers regardless of whether you know the answer. Bottom-line, you actually come across more intelligent when you let others do the talking. 

Ditch the word ‘should’ – Most customers are trying hard to do the right thing – oftentimes they themselves make bad choices or worse, don’t know what they’re buying. We don’t need to remind them that they ‘should do this’ or ‘should do that’. The key to a great sale is giving the customer what they want, not what we think they need. You can always explore options later once the relationship has matured. 

Laugh out loud – If you enter into a sales situation that is uptight, predictable or contrived, you will fail. Enjoy the meeting, enjoy the moment. Customers who see your excitement will trust that you are confident and value the task/project/product at hand and they in turn will feel more comfortable with handing you the reins (ummm…the sale). 

Lastly, don't assume that any sale is truly sold. You will need to qualify and redefine the relationship on an ongoing basis. Find mechanisms to stay connected to your clients so that they won't be snatched up by someone else because you forgot to pay attention.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

I belong to so many e-mail newsletters, RSS feeds and wiki’s that it’s hard for me to keep track of everything. But, this particular product stood out from the clutter: SlideRocket – an online presentation software that leaves Powerpoint in the dust! 

What’s the big difference? 

With interactive visual communication becoming the norm, creating that ‘wow’ factor is more important than ever.  Moverover, online presentations are slide sets that are completely Web-based, freeing users from the burdens and constraints of desktop presentation software. 

Get it free for 14 days 

SlideRocket is offering a 14 day free demo – I would highly suggest you download it and try it.

SlideRocket provides an integrated, intuitive interface for all phases of the presentation lifecycle, from creation and collaboration, through publishing and delivery.

Plus, we all love this: they have comprehensive analytics reporting, social integration, polling and more!

See a live demo.

Best

Denice MacDonald

The publication Biology of Belief - Unleashing The Power  Of Consciousness, Matter And Miracles is groundbreaking work in the field of new biology, and it will forever change how you think about thinking.  

Through the research of Dr. Lipton and other leading-edge scientists, stunning new discoveries have been made about the interaction between your mind and body and the processes by which cells receive information.  

It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts. Suffice to say – you are what you think. 

Using simple language, illustrations, humor, and everyday examples, he demonstrates how the new science of Epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of the link between mind and matter and the profound effects it has on our personal lives and the collective life of our species. 

Want to learn more? Try out an excerpt from the book here or go to Amazon to purchase the book.

About the Author

Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized authority in bridging science and spirit and a leading voice in new biology. A cell biologist by training, he taught Cell Biology at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine, and later performed pioneering studies at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. He has been a guest speaker on dozens of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national conferences. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

Now that I’m an avid traveler, it has become increasingly important that I find the best travel, hotel or car deal. I routinely use Expedia, CheapTickets and even Priceline. Now, with the intro of KAYAK , I can maximize one-stop-shopping to all these sites by allowing KAYAK  to do all the work.   

        This is how it works     .     .     .     .     . 

KAYAK is a travel search site. Everybody knows what a search site is, and everybody knows what a travel site is. KAYAK is like both, but it’s different in some important ways. 

Like a search site, they can help you find what you want. What makes them different is that they’re specialized. Their tools are made to deeply understand things like airfares and hotel stays. And like a travel site they have flights and hotels. But they’re very different from most travel sites because they don't actually sell plane tickets, hotel rooms, or anything else. 

KAYAK  helps people find the best travel choices easily by searching the data from hundreds of travel sites at once. KAYAK  lets you compare options, and when you find something that fits your budget and tastes, you book it where you want: at the airline site, from the hotel, or from a travel agent. 

OK, now you’re wondering how they make money. It’s all advertising. Just like you can watch (most) TV shows for free, you can use KAYAK  all you want, free. 

KAYAK  has local websites in eleven countries including US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, and Spain, and offer free mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry. 

Just for fun - check them out for your next travel destination.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

I’ve just begun following Chris (thanks to ace social guru Augie Ray). Chris has posted an exceptional blog on 50 Power Twitter Tips.   

Chris breaks down the tips into five categories: intent, technical, business, integrated usage, and off-twitter.  

Lastly, check out the great comments from others on the blog post web page. Amazing responses. 

Feel free to repost all or any of this, but if you do, please give credit to this link. 

About Chris

Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile technologies.  

Chris is author of the recently released Social Media 101 (Amazon affiliate link). 

For more information on this, please contact Chris directly. 

Likewise, follow Chris on Twitter.

Best

Denice MacDonald

According to several leading experts, social media has been the number one priority in 2010. Social media will be used by organizations to lift their brand, stay connected to customers while using networks to grow their lead-gen pipelines. To learn how your organization can capitalize on what others are doing, check out these ‘top’ resources, articles and blogs from leading subject matter experts.   

Social media on marketers' menu for 2010 by Helen Leggatt, Biz Report   

"It looks like social media is on the menu for most marketers this year. A survey of almost 2,000 MediaPost subscribers found that over half plan to have "a presence on social networks" as part of their marketing mix in 2010..."  

10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010 by Ravit Lichtenberg from Ustrategy.com

"It is impossible to separate social media from the online world. Facebook reached 350 million users last month -- 70% of whom are outside the US -- and it accounts for 25% of the Web's traffic, according to Pew nearly one in five people on the web use Twitter or some other service to check status messages, and 94% of enterprises plan to maintain or increase their investment in enterprise social media tools. The social media conversation is no longer considered a Web 2.0 fad -- it is taking place in homes, small businesses and corporate boardrooms, and extending its reach into the nonprofit, education and health sectors. From feeling excitement, novelty, bewilderment, and overwhelmed, a growing number of people now speak of social media as simply another channel or tactic..."

Why You Need A Social Media Policy in 2010 by Vanessa DiMauro, Customer Think   

"Policies are dull. No one wants to create them, no one likes to read them and certainly, few desire the job of enforcing them.  But they can play an important role in outlining the rules of engagement around a particular set of online behaviors and have a strong role to play in the face of new situations where the there are no standards.  This is especially true with the wild west world of social media in business..."  

Six Social Media Trends for 2010 by David Armano, Harvard Business Review   

"In 2009, we saw exponential growth of social media. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to outpace MySpace. In 2010, social media will get even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive — at least, that's my guess. What are the near-term trends we could see as soon as next year..."

Best,  

Denice MacDonald