The initial rules of marketing and advertising were to interrupt people in order to sell them a product or service, costing businesses millions of dollars from their budgets each year. The rules of marketing and advertising have changed dramatically. Now, buyers are finding the answers to their problems online via blogs, social media, websites and forums.

This week, [I] had the chance to interview David Meerman Scott, a leader at the forefront of Internet marketing and PR, about how he is assisting and creating this shift. He also dives into creating new marketing campaigns for startups in the Boston area, and let’s [me] in on his Grateful Dead fascination.

As you may know, Scott currently resides around Boston, but is known worldwide for his ideas that are scripted in his two books, The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave.

New Rules is currently published in 24 different languages, and for good reason. Not only does Scott speak throughout the United States on new marketing, but all over the world. Scott also spent a majority of his 25-year marketing career overseas. He was the Asia Marketing Director for Knight-Ridder and afterwards was based for almost ten years in Tokyo and then Hong Kong.

No boundaries or borders have or will stop Scott from carrying out his passion and message. His twenty-five dedicated years to the marketing industry illustrates this.

Out of all the places in the world, Scott has now settled in Boston. I couldn’t help but ask why he chose to reside here of all places. He told me, “While Madison Avenue in NYC is the center of offline marketing, Boston is the center of new (web based) marketing with all the plugged in people and companies located here in the Boston area. When you attend local events such as tweetups, you’re not just meeting the top people in Boston, you’re meeting some of the most influential new marketers in the world.”

Rightly so, as Boston has been named as the world’s marketing and social media hub, and just yesterday we announced that Boston is still on top as the #1 Global Innovation Economy.

Since most are already familiar with Scott’s widely documented and agreed upon marketing theories, [I] decided to instead ask him how to create a successful marketing campaign for a start up company around the Boston area based on successful and failed campaigns that he has seen.

“[The] main thing is to NOT focus on your company’s products and services. (Nobody cares about your products except for you and others in your company),” Scott told us. This is why it is highly advised to never self-promote your brand on social media or blogs because no one wants to read about you; they want to read about their problems and how they can be solved.

“Most of the implementation challenges people tell me about involve the shift from marketing products and services to the much more effective approach of focusing on a buyer persona and creating information that helps solve problems for buyers,” continued Scott. I learned of this exact concept while in college, as I was assigned to read his book New Rules of Marketing and PR for one of my courses. This was one of the most resonating points from his book at the time.

“A secondary challenge is to get marketers away from a reliance on offline marketing techniques and [get] started with online initiatives.” Companies that have used traditional advertising and marketing find it very difficult to let go of offline activities and switch to a more uncontrollable online marketing strategy.

To alleviate some of their concerns, Scott has created a Marketing Strategy Template which you can access here. This is a simple two-page plan to help companies, “shift out of the comfort zone of preaching about products and services and advertising features and benefits.”

Parallel with corporate online marketing is Scott’s strong belief in personal branding. You will see his personal brand laid out very well on his website, blog, and Twitter page. Scott took the time to explain the difference between corporate and personal branding from his perspective.

“Well, all marketing comes down to people working with people. So all branding, at itsessence, is personal branding. Companies like Toyota and BP get in trouble because they develop these big corporate brands but when you look closely in a time of crisis, it falls apart because nobody knows or can engage with the people.” We saw this all too well during BP’s crisis management efforts that failed miserably for awhile.

Before [I] ended [my] interview with Scott, [I] had to ask about his passion for the Grateful Dead since he and Brian Halligan of Hubspot wrote their new book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.”

Aside from being an avid fan, Scott found himself, “amazed that the band could attract such a huge following. When I really thought about it, I realized it was because of their marketing. So did my friend Brian Halligan who is CEO of HubSpot. So we decided to write a book about it.”

While Scott is a local resident to Boston, he is making his own worldwide rave for new marketing concepts. I, and probably many of you as well, have emulated many of his strategies both personally and at our jobs to learn the new ways of marketing and PR.

To keep up to date with David Meerman Scott, I highly recommend checking out his website, reading his blog, attending some of his speaking engagements, and following him on Twitter. You will be surprised how much you will learn from him very quickly.

Note about Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: “In this spirit, Brian and I are donating 25 percent of the royalties from our book to the Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to support further study of the Grateful Dead.”

I originally wrote this article for BostInnovation under the New Marketing Column, as I am their New Marketing writer.

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Quick Background:

I have been a customer of AT&T for over eight years on my family’s plan. Last year my contract was up so I renewed it with an iPhone. The service was decent for awhile, but as of the past three months it went downhill fast.

The Issue:

Every single call I had, whether a three minute conversation with a friend, an hour long call to home, or a half hour long conference call, would drop for no reason. It is not the location that was the issue; I made calls in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and San Francisco and had the same problem.

I brought my iPhone to Apple first because I love their customer service and assistance. They graciously replaced the phone for free TWICE for the same problem, but highly recommended that I go to AT&T to get help with my service issues.

Soon after getting my second replacement phone, I found out I could be put on my company’s Verizon plan so they would cover the monthly costs since we all use our cell phones for work calls. Between not wanting to deal with AT&T to fix my service problem (I know their customer service is not helpful from past experiences) and wanting to be on my company’s plan, I decided that I was going to leave AT&T.

When I signed up for AT&T I signed the contract and agreed to the $125 cancellation fee if I left before the two years were up; I was not expecting to leave this early. However, since my service was so terrible, I felt I had a strong case to fight the cost.

I called AT&T and explained that all calls, work and personal, dropped every time no matter where I was. This was unacceptable for a service we pay good money for. I then told them I was planning on leaving. The woman on the phone immediately copped an attitude to me and refused to understand my problem and would not waive the fee.

I said I understood that I signed a contract which included the cancellation fee, but then I asked, “Doesn’t the contract say that AT&T will give you service that works?” Their commercials even boast that they have the highest coverage nationwide of all services. The woman replied with, “Well we don’t guarantee complete service. Sorry you didn’t receive good service.” (in a very cold tone nonetheless).

Frustrated, I said I disagreed with their reasoning of not letting me get out without paying the fee, and ended the conversation. Since I was under my mother’s account, she proceeded to call them the next day. The man she spoke with was VERY rude to her, and eventually told her, “What, do you want us to put up a cell tower right next to her house?!” (Not to mention this guy was the manager as she escalated the issue to upper management). I live in Boston, there should be great service in a big city.

They refused to waive the fee for her as well. She firmly told him that she would be taking our whole family off of the account as soon as her and my brother’s contract were up since they were so unhelpuful and rude. They did not care.

What this demonstrates:

AT&T doesn’t get customer service. I am sitting here questioning why Apple was even partnering with them since Apple is the epiphany of great customer service. If you want repeat business, loyal customers and great word of mouth marketing, then treat the customers well, take time to understand their problems, don’t get rude or snappy, and act (even though you may not believe) that the customer is always right.

Isn’t that the long standing practice of customer service, that the customer is always right? If you disagree with the customer, you don’t get paid. AT&T was so adament on charging me $125 for leaving the service, but now they are losing three accounts (which pays them over $200 a MONTH!).

Think about the opportunity cost here: lose one account, leave the customer happy even though they are leaving, and continue getting paid by the remaining family members. Or, take your $125 and lose three accounts. Doesn’t it just make sense to waive the fee?! If anything, it is the disappointment of their customer service that really fires me above the actual fee.

In the end, I ended up getting rid of AT&T and having to pay the cancellation fee. AT&T, you win in that aspect, but lose huge with my family and I. Little did they know that I’m a blogger and am writing this right now. I figured it was worth it to get rid of that worthless company and pay a fee to do so and be able to move on with Verizon instead. (Although I’m still not happy that they still made me pay when they didn’t hold up on their end of the service).

Conclusion:

The customer is always right. Take time to understand the customer’s problem. They were not focused on my problem, they were focused on their immediate benefit. If you can’t foresee the wrath a decision like this can have in the future, you are not an ethical company.

A final note to AT&T:  you failed me and those that are reading this. If you chose to understand my problem and realize it is a legitimate one, I would still have left your service but would have left knowing you treated me well and understood me. Instead, you are left with an unsatisfied customer, a degrading post that I hope many read, and are losing more accounts just because you wanted your fee.

If you have AT&T, how have they treated you? Have you switched because of their poor service and support? Let me know your story below. (I hope AT&T sees this post and comment threat).

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We’ve all experienced it: the blank stare at the screen, an idea in our head that we just can’t put into words, or an outright empty bucket of blog ideas. In fact, I just experienced it yesterday while coming up with two blog posts to write for today for my company’s blog. Thankfully, I came up with two solid posts here and here.

I always end up coming through with an idea or two, but have certainly been in that spot where you just have no clue what else to write or don’t know how to start or finish a post. I write 7 to 10 blog posts a week for Backupify, one for BostInnovation, and 2 to 3 on this site. That can lead up to 14 posts a week, or two a DAY! I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this either, especially those who blog for their job at places like Mashable and TechCrunch.

While you could choose to just wait out the block, there are ways to be proactive and search for fresh new ideas.

Here are 10 effective tips to overcome writer’s block:

1. Spin Offs. Skim through some of your favorite blogs and pick up an idea or two and do a unique spin off of them. This could be refuting their point, making it an opinion piece or taking a whole new perspective on the same topic.

2. Coorelation. Pick a very unique object laying around you and relate it to something that you like to write about. For example, I’m sitting at a desk right now and a pen is to the left of me. You could talk about how pens once were crucial to our productivity but now we hardly even use them for to-do lists anymore. Almost everything is computerized, etc, etc, etc. You get the point.

3. Read a book or watch a movie and do a review of it. I usually do this after I have read a great book. This past winter I read Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot and loved it so much that I decided to blog about it. You can take mental or written out notes while reading/watching and then come up with your review of it that many will enjoy reading before buying a new book or watching a new movie.

4. Write about your surroundings. Go for a walk and take in everything around you. If you live in a city, observe the hustle and bustle of people, the smells, clothing styles, ethnicities, houses, animals, noises, etc. If you live in a rural area, take in the vast amounts of land, big yards, serenity, open skies, cars passing by, and calm lifestyle. Wherever you live, give a new appreciation for your surroundings by writing about it; maybe others will feel inspired to do the same.

5. Write about something you are doing at work (as long as it is not confidential). A month ago our company had a major press release go out. Around the same time, I expressed to my boss that I was having writer’s block and felt terrible that I was ignoring my own blog (this one). He suggested that I take something I have learned while working here and write about it. I decided to write about how social media can help leverage a press release online.

6. Interview someone. Is there someone you admire in your industry? Do you look up to your parents or grandparents? Was there one teacher or professor that had a profound impact on your life? Do you love your little cousin’s quirky comments? Interview anyone you find interesting and write about your experience talking to them. Appreciating the viewpoints and personalities of those around us can be more valuable thank you think.

7. Event Recaps. Write about an event that you went to for work. I try to attend a few marketing events around Boston every month, and if I go to a good one or met a lot of great people, I’ll blog about it. Those that attended will appreciate the recap too. This February I went to an event in Fenway Park called #Soxup where social media marketing professionals all met up to network. I blogged about it here. I also went to a CRM Acceleration event sponsored by BrainSell and Sugar CRM and blogged about it here.

8. Create a content list and calendar. Some days I find myself flowing with great blog ideas but never write them down. When I go to write one, my mind goes blank. To combat that, I keep a Google Doc list of content ideas I have both for my personal site, Backupify and BostInnovation so that I never forget a good idea again. You can then make it very organized by noting when it needs to be published by.

9. Write about old posts. Maybe you have something new to add to an old posts, want to list your most popular blog posts, or want to summarize a few posts into one. Any of these are a great refresher and polisher both for you and your readers. A few months ago I blogged about my most popular blogs thus far based on retweets, Facebook shares, number of visits and comments.

10. Invite a guest blogger to write. If you are out of ideas and can think of a writer who could provide a really good and unique perspective on something related to your blog, invite them to guest blog for you! Most people love to do this as it gives them exposure and a link back to their site if you offer it. Usually if you give them a link back, they can do it for free since an inbound link has power in terms of Google’s ranking. I have had several guest bloggers on my site whom have all provided great content for my readers.

What do you do to combat writer’s block? Do you use any of these tips or have some of your own to add? Let me know in the comments section below!

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One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Ghandi, “We must become the change we want to see.”

If you want change to happen, don’t wait for someone else to do it, do it yourself!

So many people, as pointed out in this TechCrunch post, have written meaningless posts about this problem and why it may be the men’s fault. Why don’t we all stop complaining and wondering and start embracing and encouraging? We never thought we’d see a woman in the running for the president, but we did. We never thought more women would be in college than men, but they are. We never thought women would become up and coming CEOs today, but they are. What is to stop females from rising in the high tech scene?

I know many other females around Boston that are in the same situation as I am: one of the only females at our workplace. I have spoken with many of them, including Lindsay Goldner, Ali Powell, Cait Downey, and Victoria Song about the current deficit of women in the Boston tech scene but that is not stopping us, it only empowers us to keep going. We find ourselves just as interested in high tech as many of the men we work with, and we want others to feel the same.

There have been many misconceptions about women in tech and that we will never grow to a large population, but I’d like to see that change happen in my lifetime. I saw this misconception come to life at an event in San Francisco that I attended a few months ago, Structure 2010. Structure was an intensive two-day cloud computing conference, discussing top trends, issues, opportunities and challenges in the cloud industry. I was forewarned that I was going to be significantly outnumbered at this event, and that I was! Being a 22 year old female left me sorely out of place in a conference packed with middle-aged men. People looked at me funny like I walked into the wrong event, but once I started talking with others about my career and interests, I felt right at home.

Having been raised on technology (setting up my family’s first home computer, getting my first cell phone at 13, and using AIM and MySpace in my early teen years) stirred my initial interest in the subject. Once I bought my first Mac computer in college, I was a complete tech innovation lover. I started exploring all types of techie things such as setting up Google Apps, creating a self hosted blog, studying SEO, checking out HTML, and then on the side I did reviews of various mobile apps (on my iPhone).

A few months ago, as you may have read, I landed a job at a high tech start up here in Boston. I’ve been here for four months now as the only female in the company and can’t even begin to explain how much I have learned and grown. I have been surrounded by some of the smartest minds in cloud computing, internet marketing, and website design. Four months ago I could never have imagined that I would learn as much as I have already.

Just because women aren’t the majority in the tech scene yet (or maybe ever) doesn’t mean we can’t still make a huge impact and learn like crazy. Although several of my female friends and I are the minority at events and in our workplace, that only adds oxygen to our fire. I actually enjoy being part of an underrepresented group of motivated individuals ready to take on the ‘impossible.’

Many women don’t want to be in this industry because of the misconceptions that it is a nerdy, masculine arena. Those few of us that don’t fall for that misconception need to be given a shot.

In the start up world, it is not about who or what gender formulated an idea for a start up; it is the idea that counts. If your idea rocks, it will go far (and probably make you a millionaire). Silicon Valley is a great example of this happening left and right.

I don’t regret joining this industry for even a second. It shouldn’t matter what gender you are that determines if you will succeed in a given area of interest, it should be your ideas, passion and determination that gets you far. I love what I do and will keep doing it for as long as I can.

There are many awesome groups around Boston that act as female tech incubators, including Girls in Tech, Boston Womenpreneurs (founded by Ali Powell whom I mentioned above) and Boston Women’s Network. This is a great network of groups to facilitate female interest and advancement in a previously male-only industry.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a minority of females working at your company? Share your ideas and stories below!

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I am a huge proponent of using social networking to promote a business, but first it must be understood that each message channel has a specific audience; especially Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook is now a mainstream social network with 500 million users and counting. 50% of users access Facebook via the web every day. Twitter had 106 million users as of this April so it is growing but certainly not mainstream yet. 75% of Twitter users access it via a 3rd party client such as HootSuite or CoTweet instead of the website domain which suggests most Twitter users are more technical. The average social networker would not know how to download a third party app, nonetheless know which one to use, to access Twitter.

Due to the large disparity between the two social networks, different messages need to be created for each channel.

Since Twitter is largely a technical crowd, they are looking to receive news about new products/services, innovation, gadgets, and statistics.

Facebook users, on the other hand, are there to talk with friends about more mainstream topics including trends, gatherings, celebrities, and their daily lives.

If you are trying to reach customers and leads via social media, it is crucial to keep that in mind.

At Backupify, I manage both our Twitter and Facebook accounts. On Twitter, I am able to tweet about OAuth, Twitter trends, Google Apps, net neutrality, and the like. On Facebook, I have to alter the messaging and post items like Facebook developments, Google trends, privacy, etc. Since our service is high tech in the first place, most followers and fans get the general idea, but I still need to tweak the messages accordingly.

I just started using a tool called Argyle Social, which is still in beta, that helps me measure which posts do best on each channel. You have the option to post any article on Twitter, Facebook or both and then track that URL using their web interface. The more clicks a post gets, the better it does. This helps me measure and tweak my posts according to what Argyle Social reports. If I post something too technical or non-conversational on Facebook and I see that it did poorly, I’ll know that it was the wrong post to put up and will avoid doing that in the future. If I post a really popular topic on Twitter and it gets, say, 200 clicks, I’ll know followers want more of that since they are highly interested.

When managing your Facebook and Twitter accounts for your company, always keep in mind who your audience is. The more you post about irrelevant information to them, the less people will follow, interact and engage with you. If done right, though, you can gain very passionate and smart followers who will become brand evangelists for your company.

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Five years ago you would never have had access to as much information as you do today. Now the question arises, “Is there too much information available at my fingertips?”

You might not have thought twice about the slow yet apparent increase of information that is available on the web until now. In fact, I hardly thought much into it until I read this article.

The upside to the matter is that no longer do you have to dig through a book, purchase a $500 research report or conduct a focus group to gain information that seems quite simple to obtain today.

On the other hand, our eyes are glazing over so much of this information that we are becoming far less able to soak in pages of data and would rather read quick snippets of information from article titles. For example, say you conduct a Google search for “Percentage of businesses on Twitter.” You might get a great result from eMarketer offering an extensive three to ten page report all about this. But do you choose it? Probably not. Instead, you take in what the title says, “Study finds 56% of businesses use Twitter” and do a quick scan of the first few paragraphs.

This demonstrates the inability and time deficiency that we have to sit down and read a real report anymore. Our depth of knowledge is limited but our breadth is expanding. We are now taking in more types of data but at a shallower level. Many psychologists and scientists question if this will in turn make us more stupid.

They worry that we will not be able to think deeply and thoughtfully into any one topic anymore. While we may be well versed in many topics, what does that do when we are asked to go into detail on a particular subject and can’t?

This debate boils down to focus vs. plethora of information. I stand on the fence about the issue but would have to lean in the direction of saying that in general it will be a good thing. I believe that the more well versed a person is in the world on many different topics, the better off they will be. This is not to say you should know a little about biology, green energy, social media marketing, architecture and pollution, but that you should have a broad focus on a particular industry or topic and take in bits and pieces of data all over about that.

For example, my specialty is high tech internet marketing. Do I read intensive reports on this regularly? Nope. Instead, I set up Google Alerts, subscribe to about twenty blogs, follow around 350 people that are tech and marketing related on Twitter and watch videos related to these subjects. This gives me an expansive and thorough understanding of the general state of Internet marketing. Instead of honing in on one very particular part of my speciality, I like to use the plethora of data to my advantage by expanding my knowledge and expertise to a more general category.

A few months ago I wrote a post titled ‘Information Overload or Filter Failure’ which discussed that maybe we are just having trouble creating our own data filters in our minds. To combat this, pick out particular topics you want to be aware of while scanning the web. While scanning through your Google Reader, email and Twitter feed, act as a keyword catcher and focus on picking up only articles related to those. Don’t let the data explosion overtake your whole Internet experience and let it ‘dumb you down’ as experts are calling it.

As a tip, I try to read a book a month to allow myself to not become too entrenched in only learning from what the Internet has to teach me. I also do this to be able to immerse myself into a longer story and focus on reading hundreds of pages of the same piece rather than snippets. I have realized recently that this has been a bit of a struggle to do since I read so much online now, but I am sticking to my mission to do this and it definitely helps. Try that out too and let me know if it works!

How do you react to this issue? Do you feel dumbed down by the Internet or do you think it can provide us with an opportunity? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!

You might also want to follow me on Twitter to learn more @kristinedziadul.

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From this experience, I have gained a good understanding of the do’s and don’ts of blogging, both for a personal site and a company blog.

Below are the top 10 most common mistakes I have experienced or seen to avoid:

1. Not backing up statistics.

Coming out of college, I started blog writing the way I wrote research papers. I very quickly realized that the two writing styles were very different in several ways.

a. How you cite your source. When writing college research papers, I was accustomed to using parenthesis and citing the source of information. In blogs, you use a link over the text. In general, whether it is a paper or blog, it is crucial to cite your source to establish credibility.

b. If you spout of statistics like “80% of X attributed to a 25% increase in X” without any link, how will anyone know you are correct?

c. The first step to establishing blog credibility is in linking your statistics and research to real links.

2. Promoting you or your product in every blog post

You may be familiar with the inbound marketing rule that no one cares about you or what you sell; they only care about what is in it for them. This means that while blogging, don’t write about yourself or your products. Instead, write about what interests your customers. At Backupify, our customers are interested in social media compliance, new technologies, computer security, etc. We write about our research on this and how to safeguard against security threats. Not once do we promote our service in the blogs.

3. Not editing posts before they are published

Thankfully I am a stickler when it comes to editing and writing good sentences, but it surprises me to see how many people forget spaces between words, misspell the most common words, use the wrong word type (i.e. their instead of there), or write incomplete sentences. Even people who are regarded as thought leaders and who have high subscription rates on their blogs still make obvious mistakes. All it takes is a few glances back over your post to check for spelling and grammatical correctness. This goes a long way towards establishing credibility.

4. Writing an unorganized post

Many times when writers sit down to write a blog post (and I am guilty of this as well), they get so excited about what they are going to write that they forget that there must be a structure to the post in order to engage the reader. If your writing is all over the place, the reader will wonder what you are trying to say.

As I am a writer for BostInnovation here in Boston, my editor, Kyle Psaty taught me that there must be a strong, compelling introduction that explains why I am talking about my topic. Then I need to bring the reader through my story in a clear, chronological order followed by a strong summation of the importance of what I learned from what I am writing about. People want to read a story, not a random collection of sentences that seem semi-related. Always keep the reader in mind.

5. SEO is ignored

If you are trying to rank your post in search engines, make sure to pay careful attention when adding relevant and targeted keywords into your post. There are several keyword discovery tools including Trellian Keyword Discovery, Hubspot’s Keyword Grader, Wordstream, etc. Also, just putting yourself in your reader’s head and thinking about what they would be searching for to come to your post is very helpful. Make this the last part of what you do before publishing to ensure you include all relevant keywords.

6. Headlines are sloppy and uninviting

Many of you have experienced the dramatic increase of information available to us on the web. While this is generally a good thing, it also causes us to put up strong information filters while looking for information. If your blog is in a blog aggregator site such as StumbleUpon or Digg and your title, for lack of a better word, sucks, no one will want to read it. Why would I open up an article with a title like “Inbound Marketing is the New Thing” when I could open one up that says “Ramp Up Your Company’s Marketing With These 10 Internet Marketing Tips”. Not only is this more eye catching and intriguing (people LOVE tips) but it also includes important keywords in the title that will help your article rank in search engines.

7. Not including keywords in the title

As a follow up to the point above, it is also crucial to include keywords in your title. This is important for many reasons:

a. Search engines will pick up your post as related to a particular search term much easier.

b. People will click on it more if it has keywords they are searching for right in it.

c. Google Alerts and other web filters will be more likely to pick it up with a keyword included in the title.

8. You’re writing about something you think you should write about, not what you want to write about

While it is sometimes hard to avoid writing about something you aren’t inspired to write about (such as if you are doing it for your company) it is very important to be passionate and excited about what you are writing. If you don’t even want to read what you are going to write, why will anyone else? If you write with conviction, passion and integrity, it will surely show. You can probably tell that I am passionate about this post by the detail and conversation-like tone I have added to it. This has hopefully led you to read this far down. If this was a post that I was negatively motivated to write, you would not have read down this far.

9. Not including keywords in the post itself

Many times when writing, you don’t think about SEO until right before you are about to publish. However, since SEO is still such a huge part of getting found online, it helps to put keywords not only in the title and post description, but in the body as well. This helps Google confirm that what you say the post is about is really what it is about. For example, if you are writing about the importance of mobile advertising, make sure to include mobile advertising and variations of that phrase inside your post.

10. Not promoting it or making it easy to share

After all the hard work you have put into your post, why not share it with the world?! Your blog should have multiple social sharing buttons such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Email, etc. This allows visitors to easily share a post they love without having the trouble of submitting it themselves. It is also important to share your posts on your own social channels. After I publish this post, I’ll share it on social media so my network will see it. This exposes it to thousands of eyes who will then pass it onto thousand more. Once you hit publish, begin sharing!

For beginning bloggers, this may seem like a daunting task. It takes a conscious effort to incorporate all these skills into every post, so integrate them at your own digestible pace. After a few posts, you’ll get the hang of it and will become a blogging maven!

To find out more about blogging best practices and to follow up with me, make sure to follow up with me on Twitter @kristinedziadul.

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About a month after signing up for MobileMe, I joined Twitter where I interacted with others that were experimenting and learning about cloud computing as well. During my interactions on Twitter, I came across a few business contacts who suggested I start writing a blog.

About three months after starting my blog, I landed my first and current career job at a cloud computing company, Backupify, focused on cloud to cloud social media and SaaS backup. My cloud computing knowledge began accelerating from there. Being the very curious and inquisitive person that I am, I took every opportunity to question, learn and understand everything I possibly could about the cloud industry from my colleagues.

From there, I was able to learn from our product development specialist, immerse myself in industry case studies and blogs and attended the Structure 2010 conference in San Francisco, an intensive two day event focused on new developments in cloud computing. The attendees of the conference realized that consumers are no longer wondering what cloud computing is. Consumers are now in the phase of deciding if and when they’ll adopt the leading edge technology. One of the sessions I found most valuable was titled ‘Hello, Cloud 2′ featuring Om Malik of GigaOM and Marc Benioff, CEO of salesforce.com. They gave a great overview of what the cloud means to SMBs today and how it will continue to evolve. Another fascinating part of the conference was the ‘Guru Panel’ which featured executives from Facebook, Yahoo!, PayPal, and Zynga. They all provided great overviews of how each of their corporations were pushing the boundaries of cloud computing. They discussed how to scale quickly in the cloud, real-time web experience considerations, and technologies they hope to see developed.

My expertise to date is cloud backup. At Backupify, we back up all types of online data including Google Apps (Docs, Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Sites), Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Blogger, Basecamp, and more. Backing up data is becoming more and more critical as people and business rely on online interactions. Businesses remain concerned over vital customer communications and social media compliance.

Cloud backup ensures you peace of mind that your online data will be there regardless of user error, account deletions, accidental deletions, web hacks, and more. Cloud computing in general provides companies with a cost-saving way to do the same processes they have always been doing but in a much more collaborative and inexpensive way.

Since cloud computing is fairly new, adoption has been slow due various concerns. Industry sectors like education and government for example, are worried that cloud services are not as secure as their legendary servers. This is a problem we are addressing for Backupify users and prospects today.

While I have found many challenges from working in this industry, it has also proven to be quite rewarding. There are many barriers that both individuals and companies are facing that require us to educate consumers on cloud computing on a daily basis. On the other hand, it is great to see our user base grow every day as people are moving from the phase of wondering what cloud computing is to considering which one to use. This alone has been a great consumer development as of late.

While cloud computing is still an early and somewhat unproven technology, its potential is immense. As cloud computing becomes more widespread, the need for providing secure backup will as well. All facets of our lives, from social networking to emails to photo sharing are moving online. Because the cloud is becoming an intrinsic part of our lives, backups are and will become more important than ever.

Bio: Backupify is a cloud to cloud social media and SaaS backup provider. We back up over 120 million emails, 78 million tweets, and 41 million pictures already. We have recently released a Google Apps backup solution for the enterprise sector. Find out more here, subscribe to our blog, follow us onTwitter, and ‘like’ us on Facebook.

Note: This post was originally written by me for cloudcommons.com

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With over one hundred million Foursquare users to date, you might think it is more popular than it really is. In fact, Forrester Research found that only 4% of the adult, internet-using population has used a location-based application and only 1% of all adults check into locations once a week. Compared to social network behemoths like Facebook and Twitter, this is quite a small user base.

While Foursquare has integrated with the History Channel and has an ad on Bravo it is still not mainstream, but is getting there.

While many marketers believe Foursquare is not worth integrating into their marketing program, I think it CAN be a viable marketing channel, if not now, then in the near future.

Take a local restaurant, for example. They could create a check-in for their location, monitor who checks in, see if they tweet about it or share it on Facebook, and keep track of repeat visitors. With some simple monitoring, they could begin to view trends of who comes in on a regular basis and how they share it.

From there, the restaurant manager can create a special promotion or coupon for the user to reward them for their loyalty. Of course, getting a coupon from just using Foursquare will generate some local buzz which can only help the restaurant. Just like any social network, word will spread fast and more people will want to visit this venue and check-in frequently to get rewarded as well.

Now, take a large company like Target or Macy’s, for example. They could use a tool such as developed by Burlington, Mass based Awareness which can help them monitor and track visits to their locations. They can easily see trends and develop a rewards program for frequent visitors, such as 20% off an entire purchase after 5 check-ins.

Many companies and marketing agencies may view creating a Foursquare marketing campaign as a complex process, but all it really needs to have is a simple understanding of the people who check-in and how often, and then a type of promotion to give loyal visitors.

If large companies like Target and Macy’s begin to adopt these reward programs, it is sure to gain traction and press quickly. The great part about Foursquare is that it can be used anywhere, from a local boutique to a large clothing department store, meaning anyone can create a program around the application.

Even with their recent partnership with the History Channel and ad on Bravo, they have gained some serious traction, and now have over 40 million check-ins to date.

It will be very interesting to see how local to world-wide companies begin to use Foursquare in their marketing efforts. As more companies join the bandwagon, users are sure to follow. Within the past year alone they have significantly increased their user base, so it is only expected to grow exponentially from here.

How has your company used Foursquare to engage visitors? Do you see it as a viable marketing channel now or in the near future?

Note: I originally wrote this article as a guest blog post on 4squarebadges.com

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As an employee, do you feel the burden of your employer hovering and micromanaging? It’s time they realized they are doing it and stop because, after all, you were hired to complete the tasks you were hired for accurately.

If you hired a ‘qualified’ candidate who you strongly believed could fit all the job requirements and qualifications you expected, then they should deliver. It may in fact be a case where you trust no one else to do the job as good as you so you feel the need to manage every task they do. Or, you may have doubts about them, meaning you may have made the wrong hire.

The first step to fixing this is to have a rigorous hiring process to quickly weed out all others who are unqualified, lazy, need too much training, etc. Once you pick the ‘perfect’ employee, TRUST that they will deliver what you expect them to do.

With the surge of new companies opening business, many owners, CEO’s and managers are finding themselves letting their employees have fairly free range of completing their tasks and even going above and beyond to do more.

For example, I work for a start up, Backupify, where I manage almost all of our company’s marketing efforts. My boss, the CEO, is busy fundraising, meeting with our Board of Advisors, potential employees, partners and much more. He hired me because he was intrigued by the strong online personal brand that I developed as well as my past experience doing online marketing. This gave him peace of mind that if he gave me some direction of what to do and we talked about upcoming projects when they came about, I would be able to execute them at the quality level he expected.

And the case so far has been just that. We have just enough interaction to keep me on track and in the loop with current and future marketing efforts, but I also have free range to execute them in a way I am most comfortable with. I also feel comfortable generating additional ideas and responsibilities as I see a need for them.

When an employer gives their new hire the freedom to execute tasks on their own without direct supervision, a few things happen:

1. The employer can focus on higher level tasks without the worry of having to micromanage smaller ones.
2. The employee feels more comfortable and at ease at work that every aspect of their work and working habits won’t be scrutinized.
3. A trusting working relationship begins.

It turns out to be a win-win for everyone.

So stop hovering over your employees and let them feel comfortable in their own workspace and gather a rhythm of how they work best in your company. And for the employer, you can relax and know that their tasks will be done right and you can focus 100% on yours as well.

Have you worked for someone who was a micro manager or are you guilty or doing this? If so, has it affected the work dynamics and trust within the company?

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I branded myself as an up-and-coming expert in the online marketing industry, interested specifically in innovation, new technology, and social media/community building. This image was demonstrated through my social media involvement, new product reviews, daily blog posts, and discussions at networking events in person.

This led to many people recognizing me for this and coming to me for expert advice. I was able to develop a large and reputable following online, which ultimately led me to an amazing job offer at Backupify.

Since I have started here, I have continued to interact with many of my same followers online and they were more than willing to spread the word about my company, and some are even beginning to profile my move to Backupify. Coming into this company with a good network of followers, a strong reputation in the industry, and a knack for interent marketing, I clearly had an advantage.

Here are 10 reasons why your online personal brand can help your company:

1. You already have great connections
2. You are able to concisely represent and demonstrate what you stand for
3. You ‘get it’ in regards to branding which is the key to success for many companies
4. People will know that there is an actual human behind a brand once you join the company.

People do business with people, not companies.

5. You bring a unique personality to the company that everyone will know about
6. You have already learned how to defend your reputation (and you can now use this skill to your company’s advantage if need be)
7. People naturally gravitate to a persona rather than a brand or logo, so you help bring people to your company and its website
8. You have proven yourself to be an expert in a niche industry which will allow you and your company to succeed
9. Personal branding helps with building business relationships and trust
10. You can help leverage credibility and information spreading for your company within your own powerful community of connections who are willing to share your posts.

Once you and your personal brand have entered a new company, here is what you can do to integrate your personal brand to help the company:

1. Personalize all conversations. For example, if you are managing the Facebook Fan Page of the company and you comment back to a wall post, sign your comment with your name so someone knows there is a person behind the brand and they may even know who you are.

2. Post blogs with your name on it so people know it is you posting and will view you as a credible source.

3. Maintain all prior contacts you made before working for this company and continue to interact with them so they can help with your transition into a new role and promote your new work.

4. Repost all original content produced by your company (i.e. blog posts, webinars, eBooks, podcasts, etc.) to help leverage the content further on the Internet and bring along credibility with it.

5. Keep yourself unique in the company. You came in as a unique individual with a unique set of skills and assets, so bring that to the table during all company meetings, brainstorming sessions, etc. to keep the workplace diverse and interesting. Knowledge sharing is one of the best things great employees can bring to a company.

How have you integrated your personal brand with the company you work for? Does your employer support this?

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Social media is a very powerful tool to help leverage a press release on the Internet today. This pas week I demonstrated how to best leverage a major press release primarily via social media. Yes, the release was going to be circulating the web and sent out to major sources (i.e. TechCrunch, CRN, BusinessWire, etc.) but I also needed a way to leverage it within my company’s direct community.

Backupify, the company I work for, was launching a major new service, Google Apps backup. We had great connections all over the tech industry and with bloggers, but also wanted to share it within our own network of contacts.

Here is how we leveraged the press release on social media:

1. We created an outreach program via Facebook and Twitter. As different sites released their coverage of our release and the press release went out later that afternoon, we tweeted it out and shared it on Facebook to let those who may not see the articles otherwise have a chance to read and share it.

(note: we had other sites release their coverage of our new service first to give readers a heads up about the event and get them familiar with it before the press release was published later in the afternoon. This seemed to work very well).

Not only were we able to share about five different articles on social media, but we saw over 120 retweets of them over the course of the day (and more days after). This was social proof that people were reading and liking what we were doing.

It is one thing to push articles out to blogs and sites whose job is to showcase press releases and service reviews, but it is another to have true fans and customers read and voluntarily share that same data.

This helped us confirm that people were out there reading about us, liking what they read, and willingly sharing it. In the age of social networks and sharing, it seemed like an obvious move to utilize our social connections to leverage our backup launch.

2. Aside from simply tweeting it out to the Twitterverse and sharing it on Facebook, we specifically asked brand evangelists to share it in their networks as well. As you can imagine, this helped the message spread even further on the Internet.

3. I retweeted others who commented on our new product release.

4. I kept our Google Alerts open on our RSS to monitor for every new mention of Backupify on the web. From there, we were able to share and comment on the articles to be actively involved with writers and readers.

I have been analyzing the buzz around our release ever since then and there is such an immense amount of tweets, status updates, new news articles and blogs that picked up the press release. Overall, social media was a huge aspect of our product launch and our fans and followers led the pack in spreading the news at lightening speed.

How have you used social media to help leverage a major press release? What were some of the results? Tell me your story below!

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Yes, great content sells, and can sell big (especially for Cambridge-based Hubspot) However, for companies that do not have the research, resources or human capacity to turn out tons of original, fresh content daily, this concept of constant fresh content seems impossible.

There is only so much you can write about on a particular topic, and also only so much you can read about as well. I have felt that as of now I am going through this phase, which is troubling. I have been going full steam ahead on this blog since December. Recently, I have not had time to update it daily like I did before, as I have a full time job now which involves blogging twice daily. However, I am running out of a flowing river of fresh new ideas on new marketing to write about.

As you have probably noticed, I have began to post just once a week, providing my most valuable ideas of the week. While it is less frequent, I still enjoy writing once weekly to give you, my readers, something worth sticking around for.

So what do you do when your company or personal blog runs out of ideas to write about? It is a good idea to revisit old blog posts to enhance them or do a recap of your best-of blog posts so far. It also helps to occasionally write customer success stories (if you are a business, of course) to highlight your readers and get a break from your traditional theme of content.

When you reach the inevitable readers block, think outside of the box.

There are always ways to get around this problem, you just need to be more creative. Don’t force yourself to create incredible content every day as this may be nearly impossible, but focus also on writing fun, engaging stories about your industry, company, customers, etc.

For example, if you mainly focus on your very small niche market, expand your topic a bit to discuss how your small industry impacts the larger economy as a whole. Providing reading material for a larger audience like this can be very beneficial to your business.

At my company (Backupify) we primarily blog about cloud computing and online social media and SaaS backup. While this is a hot topic with many new developments, there is only so much that our customers and readers want to read about until it gets old. Occasionally I try to write about our best blog posts, examples of our service in action, a recap of an event, etc. This all helps to keep both my readers and I interested and digesting relevant yet diverse information.

How has your company developed its ‘incredible content creation’ strategy? Has it stayed successful or is it getting stale? If stale, how are you overcoming it? Leave your comments below!

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On Tuesday, Lenox-based ThoughtLead, led by our friends Steve Haase and Sam Rosen, organized the shortest virtual marketing conference ever — the Influencer Project.

This magical hour of online content, sponsored by HubSpot, Marketing Profs, Anne Holland’s Which Test Won, Rack Space, Winstanley Partners, and ReadWriteWeb featured 60 brilliant minds in the marketing field who spoke for 60 seconds each.

The Influencer Project was developed for a very interesting reason. When we talked to Hasse, he explained that the project was actually a bit of much-needed marketing for his company.

“It’s a funny thing, because it was born from a pretty high-pressure situation,” he admitted. “Basically, our business needed a hit. We needed to grow in a hurry, since we had only recently launched our web presence after spending lots of time and money on a software platform that wasn’t panning out. We spent time doing services after that, but had transitioned away from those as well. So we were in a tight spot, but endlessly optimistic.”

The Influencer Project was designed to inspire virtual attendees and empower them to grow their online influence. Haase and Rosen said, “We know so many people who are up to amazing things but aren’t getting the kind of traction or attention they deserve. So we created this event to deliver all the tools and perspective someone would need to make a big difference using the Internet.”

Many companies, including HubSpot and Rackspace, have created events, conferences and webinars featuring incredible content for the purpose of gaining traction in the market. These big content pushes can be very successful, and Hasse says he feels the Influencer Project was a hit for ThoughtLead as well. They knew they needed a cool idea to gain attention, and found the perfect means to do so.

This idea, while brilliant, came at a whim. “We let our imagination run wild and came up with the “60-in-60″ format. It tickled us when we first thought of it, so we knew we had to run with it,” Hasse continued. They didn’t want to mock the same formats that other companies were doing, such as hour-long lectures or sponsored events, so they worked outside of the box and came up with this intriguing event that attracted over 750 live listeners and 2,400 live tweeters.

To give you an idea of what this information-packed conference was like, it was similar to a college style ‘power hour.’ Instead of music, it was smart marketers and instead of alcohol, participants consumed tons of information and insights. In this short amount of time, listeners learned more about new marketing than they possibly could have in a week of reading through eBooks and watching webinars.

I entered the Boston marketing scene about eight months ago and have already learned many of the major concepts these people spoke of, but no webinar or book I read in the past could have summed up all of these ideas better.

In just a short amount of time, attendees learned the importance of community building, engaging with customers offline, helping others to succeed, and creating and sharing incredible content.

Here are a few of the key takeaways this amazing event produced:

David Meerman Scott, author of New Rules of Marketing and PR explained how transparency helps build your company as a thought leader by sharing things with people that other companies may not be willing to.

Scott Porad, CEO of Cheezburger Network, stressed that we must not only make connections with people online, but offline too. This builds trustworthy, meaningful relationships.

Boston’s social maven Joselin Mane spoke of the importance of really making connections with people in person first and then developing a strong relationship online via social media. He also suggested that when you meet someone, you should make it a point to introduce them to someone new so they will remember you for that.

Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb is naturally early in the news cycle on the web, being the lead writer for RWW. He advised us all to be early in the news cycle as well and to detect and articulate patterns. Content creators must find those early voices and figure out who is working on new things. Then, the content creator must add in their original thinking to the breaking news to add meaningful value.

Guy Kawasaki suggested marketers develop a digital impression. He says we must repeat our tweets several times a day; that will result in similar click throughs each and more impressions total. He has a large Twitter presence, and it is no wonder why.

Justin Levy, who unveiled his new book in Boston last week, stressed the importance of listening. We must listen to conversations going on around us since not all communities and markets are the same.

We were truly thrilled to tune into this intense marketing conference, and all of our current marketing ideologies were either reinforced or enhanced during this one-hour period. For those of you who missed this information packed event, visit http://influencerproject.com to download the MP3 and transcript of 60 in 60.

What were your thoughts of this virtual conference? Tell us some of your most valuable takeaways in the comments section below.

To learn more about ThoughtLead, follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook.

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The world of marketing as we once knew it has changed dramatically in the past five years alone. It has moved away from traditional media marketing including TV, radio and magazine advertisements, and is now more present than ever on the Internet, mobile phones, and other new media outlets.

As Brian Halligan, CEO of locally-based marketing software provider HubSpot, wrote in a recent blog post, Boston was first described as the ‘hub’ of the universe by Oliver Wendell Holmes nearly 100 years ago, and it’s now the hub of New Marketing. That fact will soon be celebrated at FutureM from October 4-8.

FutureM, organized by our friends at MITX, will be the first ever week-long marketing summit featuring the brightest in the field, including entrepreneurs and technology gurus alike. Massachusetts is rich in mobile advertisers, analytics experts, pioneers in online communities and video bloggers. There was no better place for FutureM to start than right here in Boston.

We at BostInnovation are very excited to follow and attend this first-ever event. We truly believe Boston to be a city that is innovative, technologically advanced, and marketing-centric — and we hope FutureM can communicate some of that with a week of celebration and information.

We have seen the rise of many now-famous marketers and technology evangelists right here in Boston, including Chris Brogan, David Meerman Scott, Edward Boches, Seth Godin and Halligan; solid proof that we are breeding next generation marketers seeking to disrupt and improve the marketing arena.

Many of these professionals are sure to attend, along with a brilliant following of committee members including: Joe Grimaldi, CEO of Mullen; Kiki Mills, President of MITX; Chris Hughes, Co-Founder of Facebook and Dave Balter, Founder and CEO of BzzAgent.

Over a month ago, Boston’s Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced that he intends to help develop 1,000 acres on the South Boston waterfront into an “Innovation District,” where startups can begin to thrive. This was a statement not only to us but to the country as a whole that Boston is a rising star in technology and marketing disruption. FutureM is sure to be another.

If you are a marketer, make sure to mark this week-long event on your calendar to be a part of an incredible occasion that celebrates and enhances the revolution of the industry, with top-notch marketing thinkers leading the way. FutureM is true proof that Boston is still the hub of the universe and will continue to be in the future.

You can read more about this exciting event on the FutureM website, by following FutureM on Twitter, and by liking FutureM on Facebook.

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