This just in: My Invitation to the Pencil on Linked In

I must admit, it's a bit intimidating this new thing on Linked in.  Out of the blue, I was invited to be a Publisher on Linked in.

Intimidating because it has the potential to reach 300 million people which comes with an expectation to write something informative and interesting to that broad group of executives, entrepreneurs, and everybody who is ever your potential client.  

So I'm busy thinking of a topic and hoping that they don't revoke my access before I can come up with something.  I'm excited to get started, but need some topics ideas.  Anyone? Leave me a suggestion below, and when it's done, I'll post the link.

Creating a long, blog-like post, works like this:  

From the home button, your status form is at the top. If you have a Pencil in the top right, click it to open the drafting panel for your post.  

Write and design your post and be sure to include a photo and some engaging copy.  Once published, your posts become part of your main personal profile screen, and may also be featured on the LinkedIn Pulse stream for the topic area.  You may also get followers of your Pulse stream, just like all those famous subject matter experts you are probably already following yourself.  

Impressive. Daunting. and just bit intimidating. 

Soon more people will be able to become publishers and have their own Pulse stream of stories, increasing their exposure to millions of people.

Status updates remain unchanged.  So if you don't click the pencil to initiate a blog post, your status update will be visible only to your Linked in network of connections. 

Tell me are you a publisher? Have you made your first post(s)? Have you noticed increased traffic to your personal profile page? Do you have any followers? 

Don't be shy! I want to follow you on Linked in!

How Too Many Marketing Ideas can be Bad for Small Business

When it comes to marketing, ideas are a dime a dozen.  

It is easy to come up with ideas. There are so many options.  Often the result is too many ideas. 

Too many ideas to sort out how they all fit together and to know which ones to do.
For small businesses and organizations doing their own marketing, it often becomes too time consuming or overwhelming as there are too many ideas, too many platforms, and too many other things requiring the business owner's attention.  And usually too many ideas to implement with existing and fixed fiscal and human resources.  

When businesses are busy with their day-to-day activities, marketing becomes less important. This is how too many marketing ideas can lead to no marketing. Busy companies tend to stop promotion and advertising. However the marketplace is ever-changing and marketing needs to be considered in both slow and busy times. 

Getting on the Front Page of Google: Just Press 1

Like many businesses, we've been getting a lot of calls lately from a 360 area code, who never leaves a message but keeps calling.   It's always a robot caller implying they work for Google and guaranteeing (yes, guaranteeing) to put our business listing on the front page of search engines.   Sometimes I just hang up, but this time.... 

I finally decided to make them stop calling.  I pressed "1" to receive the offer.