. By Robert Dempsey, Contributing {grow} Columnist. Despite the huge growth of eCommerce, most business is done by people, with people and for people … and is therefore built on relationships. You have relatively few options when it comes to building a relationship with new customers:  . Meet them in person. Meet them over the phone. Meet them online using proactive contact on social media. Provide helpful, informative and entertaining content that will bring them to YOU. Now here’s a question for you: how many people can you talk with on the phone in a given day? Do you agree? MORE >>

Just tweeting a subject line and link from a blog (be a post by you or a post on another blog) is not always the most effective way to drive traffic to the post. If the subject line is really good, that can certainly be effective, but there are other options to get people’s attention [.]. Blogging Community marketing Content marketing Social media marketing social marketing social media tweeting tips Twitter twitter tips & tricks MORE >>

Launching a CEO blog but the boss isn’t sure what to write about? Here are 8 ideas based on a list we created recently for a client: 1. Opinion/Thought Leadership – opinions/rants/views on the world of [insert your product category here] – the good, bad and ugly. good place to be controversial. Industry Trends – how is your industry/space changing? What’s different now compared to 1 year ago? years ago? What are you seeing more and more with customers that others may want to take note of? What do you predict as trends to come? Lists works well here (e.g. What’s your take/view? MORE >>

by Elle Woulfe | Tweet this What a difference a month makes! On May 25 all the countries within the European Union were supposed to enact a directive requiring anyone doing business in the region to get opt-in permission to track consumers online. Already the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has seen a steep drop off on visitor tracking. Last week, Google Analytics expert, Vicky Brock , posted this chart showing that since the UK implemented its own version of the law the ICO can only track 10% of visitors to its site with the Google Analytics cookie. Share email. MORE >>

The whole idea of assessing social influence is fascinating to me. Klout and other companies are popping up to reduce people to a single number … which evokes delight in marketers and loathing in those being rated!  An evil genius could have a lot of fun with that scenario : ). This trend also taps into people’s sense of competition and it’s easy to be knocked off center when a cat or an inanimate object has a higher Klout score than you.  Hey, I admit it – when Klout first came out, yes … I compared my score to other bloggers to see where I stood.  MORE >>