Take a look at this diagram from Lee Odden and TopRank Online Marketing Blog.

Even if you’re not using all of the tools listed here, utilizing just a couple could increase the visibility of your blog and possibly your businesses bottom line.

So, whether you blog once a day or once a month make sure your blog is active and connected.

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The newest member of the Droid family looks great and is the biggest and fastest droid yet.

Here’s an take on the new Droid X from Mashables

Will being a day early help deflect the iPhone 4?  What are you thoughts?

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The mobile payment industry is about to find it’s pay day – it’s estimated that mobile payment will jump over 800%.  In 2009 mobile pay companies processed 68.7 billion dollars by 2014 the industry is looking at processing 633.4 billion, not a bad return on investment if you ask me.

So are you ready for the mobile payment world?  It’s coming, don’t  you think you should start to get ready now, why wait to turn away that first customer who wants to pay with their smartphone.

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While the all-in-one functionality will  reduce the number of clicks between searching and eating.    I’ve used Opentable and liked it a great deal, but I’m not a big fan of Yelp,  so I will continue to make the clicks.  Actually, I won’t because I don’t use Yelp!

If you do use Yelp you will still be able to see reviews, ratings, price and other information on Restaurants, , but now you’ll be able to  choose the restaurant by checking availability and making  a reservation.  No longer with you  have to bring up OpenTable to make a reservcation . Yelp users won’t need an OpenTable account to the  feature, either.

Current OpenTable users will receive OpenTable points when making a reservation with Yelp as long as the same e-mail address is used for both accounts.

Yelp said by email “This feature is something that our users have been asking us for, and we’re happy to oblige”  I don’t doubt the users wanting it on Yelp, but do wonder if  the Restaurants want to be associated with Yelp in that way?

Will Yelp’s integration of OpenTable make you use Yelp more often?  After all a third of all business listed are restaurant with over 11 million reviews.

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While this is a great idea, managing the many different social media outlets and the content being sent to them, it can be a bit time consuming, the underlying issue remains.

Any business using social media needs to learn how to listen, first.  Managing is great, putting out good content even better, but that is lost,  if the business is not really paying attention to what is being said.

My fear regarding these type of social media content management tools is they will give business the idea that they can manage the message – which we all know will never bee true, because they never really controlled the message in the first place – once it left the office!

What are your thoughts on tools to manage social media content?

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Personally, I think the campaign is wonderful and will be successful.  However it is a double edge sword – if the projects that receive money accomplish little, Pepsi will receive little reward and much blame for squandering millions of dollars and having nothing to show for it.  However, if Pepsi finds a couple of outstanding programs that do amazing work, then they will benefit from the good work, while being praise and rewarded for giving back to the community.  It always helps to know you consumer dollar can come full circle back to your community.

This 21 century corporate community partnership idea is nothing new, but how they go about getting the information out to the masses and not just existing nonprofits is.

In the end I think this will benefit Pepsi more in the long run then any Superbowl Ad.  How many of those ads do we see three months later?  This campaign could go on for years, will minor adjustments and changes and thing of the brand loyalty they can create.  I just hope Pepsi has a long term strategy for this campaign and these project – there is nothing worse then a corporation throwing one time money at a long term problem with no long term planning.

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If this is the move for the commercial world, I’m happy.  I will be happy to drink Pepsi if I know a portion of the money they make is being reinvested back into a community of need.  It’s doesn’t have to be my community, nor do I expect Pepsi not to make a profit, but knowing they are giving back in a meaningful way makes it easier to choose a Pepsi product.

What do you think of the Pepsi Refresh Project?

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Verizons "There's a map for that"

AT&T case against Verizon “There’s a map for that” ad was rejected by a Federal Judge in Atlanta Wednesday.  AT&T claims the ad was misleading, but at this point does it matter? The damage is done.  Yes, the can fight it in court, win and maybe get a monitory judgment, but will that make  difference for the consumer, probably not.  While the lawyers fight it out, the marketing staff at AT&T need to get a response and quick.

Today, AT&T came out with their counter, not as strong because it talks about smartphones and app – which refer to one product  – the iPhone, but at least they are trying to answer the map add.
Might, I suggest AT&T look at the user contract and cancellation policies of Verizon.  I think AT&T should talk to customer through the pocketsbooks – offer a one year contract – lower termination fees – get clients in the doors, then you can talk about how good your coverage is and how 3G is a small part of the complete wireless network.

Here is AT&T new ad with Luke Wilson sidebyside

Just my thoughts!

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Here are my thoughts on Facebook presents for NPO leader
Before you go out an start trying to increase your presence on Facebook – the first questions is, do you have the time to maintain the presents?  and I do me you personally.

Maintaining a presence on line takes effort, just like maintaining a website, blog or calendar. It’s not just about building the presences, but it’s about keeping it.  If your ready to maintain your presences, there are three general approaches:

1. See who your friends are friends with, you will find you may have a lot in common with them.
2. Search for subjects your interested in and friend people who also find those subjects interesting.
3. Post interesting information on your Facebook page and people will find you. (also useful on Twitter)

This will take some work and will not happen over night, but given time and commitment your Facebook presences should increase.

Do you have other things that have worked well for you or your organization?  We’d love to hear about them.

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Why the ousted leader of one of our nations great business collapse was talking to future business leaders is beyond me, but maybe he was telling them how not to run a business.

During this speech, Mr. Thain spoke to the issue he is most remembered,, after the collapse of a leading investment institution, the redecorating of his office and conference rooms at a cost of $1.2 million.  In an comment to lighten the discussion, he suggested that if he had to do it again he furnish it in Ikea.   While the comment brought laughs and chuckles from the audience, Ikea spokes person said “John, stop by Ikea anytime”.

But what could Ikea do to leverage this gift of gab from Mr. Thain?  Here are a couple of quick thoughts I had:

1. Find successful CEO who did furnish their office with Ikea  and promote the hell out of their smart business sense and style – I mean really who needs a $25,000 chest of drawers?
2. Promote executive office designs, that is functional and stylish with out breaking the budget

3. Start a contest to find the best design and use of Ikea products in the exec. suite.

This is one of the rare moments when a company was give a public lemons and should make sweet satisfying lemonade to toast their success!

What’s your lemon, how can we help you make lemonade?   

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