Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Content Marketing for Small Business at the 2012 Ohio Growth Summit

This is the week you’ve been waiting for — at least if you’re an Ohio small business owner. The 2012 Ohio Growth Summit kicks off bright and early this Thursday in the main ball room at Columbus State Community College. And what an event it will be! I think Mike Bowers and the rest of the crew at the Small Business Development Centers made a good decision this year in opening up the format to include a variety of tracks that speak to all levels of entrepreneurs and small business owners. The sessions are each positioned to provide attendees with educational sessions that will give them actionable take-aways they can put to work in their own businesses right away. I was delighted to be asked to design the content marketing for small business track at this year’s Ohio Growth Summit, and I feel fortunate to have a line up of three different panels, stocked with true subject matter experts that you won’t want to miss. That said, you will miss them if you don’t attend the #OGS12. The conference already has more than 12o attendees which is just over last year’s attendance. As appreciation for my readers, I have been given special code you can use to get a last minute 50% discount on your badge. That means you get a full access pass to #OGS12 for only $65. If you’d like to attend my track at the 2012 Ohio Growth Summit, use the code NR50 when you register and you’ll receive your badge for half the price of admission. If you’re still on the fence, here is a description of the content marketing for small business track I’ll be leading on Thursday. This is just one of four incredible tracks at the event, along with amazing keynote speakers that include author Gini Dietrich [...]

Read This Post

Pinterest: 5 Reasons the Valuation of the Darling Discovery Network is Bogus

By now, you’ve probably see the articles flying around the web that are citing the $100 Million investment into Pinterest by Japan’s top online shopping site Rakuten Inc, which has then valued America’s darling visual discovery platform at between $1 billion and $1.5 billion dollars. Personally, I think those numbers reflect our absolute infatuation with heightened traffic as the result of online buzz.  Is it just me, or is this whole online craze starting to smell like it did back 1999? I take nothing away from Pinterest and the folks who had the vision and the gusto to turn it into an online discovery destination.  It’s the rocket-like trajectory of attention and adoption among America’s female audience (in Europe, it’s the men) that I think has sparked a seismic shift towards endless vertical designs that tap the human behavioral power of our unbelievable propensity to keep scrolling down. But a $1.5 billion dollars?!? That’s tough one to get your head around, isn’t it? If you’re struggling with this like I am, perhaps these 5 considerations will give you something to ponder this week as go about sifting through the hype and blogger reactions to how much America’s darling discovery network is actually worth. 1. Unbelievable traffic doesn’t always lead to unbelievable profits. Holy trajectory Batman! At least by comScore’s measures as seen on TechCrunch in February, Pinterest’s traffic growth was nothing short of a online phenomena during the course of 2011 and early 2012. But now it’s May, and 2012 is nearing the halfway point of closure. Perhaps WSJ summed it up the best in this short clip from today’s article on Pinterest’s valuation: People have flocked to the site. Last month, Pinterest crossed 20 million users, up from only 1 million users in July 2011, according to comScore Inc. SCOR +0.43% ComScore has said Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing stand-alone sites it has tracked. Pinterest still has no clear business model, however. As of earlier [...]

Read This Post

Ohio Growth Summit 2012: 13 Indisputable Reasons You Must Attend

It’s that time of year again. Every Spring brings a stellar event to the Columbus, Ohio community. The Ohio Growth Summit is in it’s 7th year and going after lucky number 7 with some serious gusto!  If you live in and around the state of Ohio and work for or own a small business, #OGS12 has evolved over the years to offer topic discussions and expert presentations that can help you to make an impact on what matters most to all businesses – growth. In the past few years, attendees have called for loads of information on using social media as part of a small business marketing plan. While that’s important and still a part of the summit this year, the folks at the SBDC have expanded the programming to include a variety of break out tracks that will cover everything from early stage growth to finance and scaleability. 10 Indisputable Reasons You Must Attend #OGS12 If at any point during this list, the urge to buy your ticket to this year’s Ohio Growth Summit strikes you, please scroll back up and use the very large and bright register button below. While it may be intimidating, I promise that the button is very friendly to small business owners and clicking it will in no way cause harm to your persons or business. Today is the last day to register at the early adopter rate of $100. Prices will go up tomorrow so take advantage. Your can use my discount code (NR20) to save some additional dollars. Reasons 1 & 2 combined basically make the Ohio Growth Summit a no brainer. Let me ask you this — how may actionable ideas, tips and resources do you need to take away from an $80 investment to show a return that’s worth it? My friend Gini Dietrich is flying in from Chicago to talk about how public relations can [...]

Read This Post
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 106