“Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.” —attributed to Samuel Johnson

The sales process is a completely different experience these days and a hard sell rarely, if ever, works effectively. Moving prospects through the sales funnel requires a longer–but more effective–process, during which you must educate your customers and solve their problems. So, instead of viewing sales as a simple transaction, approach your marketing funnel…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock this past week, you’ve no doubt been inundated with numerous variations of the Harlem Shake video. Though it seems like every business, organization and team in the world has posted their own take on “Sh*t (Somethings) Say,” “Call Me Maybe,” “Dollar Shave Club” and “Gangnam Style,” it’s important…

It's hard to believe that Twitter is no longer the darling social network it once was, in light of relative newcomers like Quora, Pinterest, and Vine. However, Twitter remains a marketing powerhouse, especially for B2C brands who understand the social network's potential in regards to customer acquisition, brand loyalty, and customer service. While there are…

In any discussion of the masters of B2C social media, the usual suspects—Zappos, Ford, Starbucks, Dell, Coca Cola—are most often touted. There is, however, one assuredly unsexy brand that has created a dedicated and engaged community on Facebook and Twitter. Here are three things that you can learn from the wonderfully odd simplicity of the…

As you consider content that converts, don’t take personal blogging for granted. Here’s an example of how a former entertainment lawyer changed his life and is helping educate and fix an industry through his blog.

Let’s start with some honesty: competing with your buddy to be the Mayor of Starbucks is a silly exercise, right? It’s a freakin’ coffee shop, so why are we so inclined to mark our digital territory with frequent Foursquare check-ins or to stock up on some ridiculous badges?

When free broadcast television was much more relevant, programs from The Ed Sullivan Show to The Cosby Show and from M*A*S*H to Seinfeld had massive audiences. But there was a late night talk show whose host actually built a comedy community without the Internet: NBC’s The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. If you were a…

Back when I was working as an editor for a monthly magazine, I started my morning with an exercise routine. It went something like this: Delete, delete, delete … pause … delete, delete, pause … click, click, click … delete, delete. Faced with a mailbox that was flooded with hundreds of emails delivered overnight and…