There are many great writers who have unsuccessful blogs. Here’s why. They may be great writers, but they are not great bloggers. There’s a big difference. Here are eight ways that blog writing differs from how you might write in school or at work. 1) Headlines matter. Nobody is going to sit by the fireplace with a glass of wine and relax with a good blog post. Blog readers are SKIMMERS. More than likely they are scanning their inbox or blog reader to figure out what posts are worthy. You have to GRAB ‘em and make them read. Here are characteristics of great headlines: Catchy. MORE >>

Photo credit: eric.delcroix. I’m old. 30 years ago, I learned how IBM qualified leads for sales. At the time, I know now, it was unusual to even have a process for such a thing, but that is how IBM worked (and still does). Most B2B businesses did not have such a process and the ones who did probably did not follow them as religiously as IBM did, but even if you don’t know you have a process, you do. Whatever you do is your process. And unless you have seriously revisited it the last few years, the Internet has broken your B2B sales process. Please sign up if you are in town.) MORE >>

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When done right, effective marketing will generate a quantifiable “multiplier effect.” ” While social media gets much of the recent credit for this phenomenon, it has existed forever, long before the famous shampoo commercial that explained how happy customers “tell their 2 friends, who tell their 2 friends and so on, and so on.” ” I believe that the most important words in marketing are “thank you. ”  Because when you create great content, your readers will share it. So you should thank them! But what is the opposite of thanking your readers? MORE >>

By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow}  Columnist. There is an unsettling buzz about the future of Facebook. Some analysts report that Facebook usage is declining , or at least  slowing in some parts of the world  and if that is true, it is a problem of Facebook’s own making. The The company has made two critical mistakes: It stopped focusing on core customer needs and it has ignored its business partners. First, serve your users. Facebook is foremost a place to connect with family and friends. Secondarily, Facebook provides a place for self-expression. But it has worked for Google. MORE >>