I’m going to presume that most startups would like to be found online by people (you know, like potential users or -gasp- customers) . People try really hard to get their internet marketing “right” so as to increase their chances of being found by the right people online. There’s a whole industry based on this need. I should know, I’m in the business of helping businesses get found.

That’s why this particular example really struck a chord with me.

Lets start at the beginning.

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Someone asked me the other day what their staff member could be doing to help with SEO as they had some spare time on their hands. While there isn’t really a perfect answer that will fit any business, these tips should be useful on the whole (not in any particular order)

1. Submit your site to directories.

If you aren’t already doing this as part of your link building efforts, then directory submissions can be a quick and easy way to help with your SEO efforts. As long as you train your staff member on the basics (following submission guidelines, varying anchor text) there’s not really anything that can go wrong.

Lists of directories to submit to can be found easily enough via search engines.

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Training seems not to be taking place in agency life, or for that matter, in corporations. Or, well, PR and communications cannot just move past pushing the message and learning to work. It goes back to when are we ever going to learn?

This past week, Johnson & Johnson pinged a few of the momosphere bloggers to invite them to a camp, and then sent out one of their PR firms, RF Binder, to make more of a mess (although, I am not sure of the order of the mess and who was responsible for what). I thank Erin Kotecki Vest for pointing me to the first post, and for letting me see the whole thing blow up from the start.

You used to be able to see the pitch letter here: one word of advice, if you cannot get a blogger’s email address, move on or do it less obviously. Or, just be a good sleuth because you usually can find a working email address (she has since taken down the PR pitches).

I am not going to break it down and write what I think of the situation. Susan Getgood did a great job breaking it down, and you can get the full story from Stefania of CityMama / Kimchi Mamas (one point - no one ever reaches out to her as an Asian mom, but only via CityMama).

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All is not well at broadcaster CNN, if the story of Chez Pazienza is anything to go by.Pazienza, a producer on CNN’s American Morning TV show until a few weeks ago, was fired for blogging.

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I’ve seen lots of predictions for 2008 with regards to search engine optimization and marketing. Most of these come from SEO firms and consultants. They all focus on what they think Google will do or how Universal Search (blended search), Social Marketing and such will change or affect how we will view search engines and their results on our websites. But I’ve not seen any predictions related to what businesses should do about all of these predictions and changes.

Five things businesses should plan on doing for themselves and their websites in 2008:

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At the Triangle Social Media Club, Kipp Bodnar led the group’s discussion regarding the business applications of podcasting.

I will attempt to recap some of our highlights for those who couldn’t wake up at 8am.

For those companies or individuals that may be determining whether or not to start a podcast, the group consensus was that an evaluation of assets is necessary. The following are some questions to ask:
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I just read an article from Read Write Web which covered a genius topic entitled, “A List of Objections, Replies and Concessions Regarding Social Media and Tools”. The article reminded me of my own post about the 10 Most Common Social Media Myths, simply because it covered many of the objections to social media that we as a social media agency tend to hear from prospects, and the remaining resistors of social media - traditional marketers.

So shortly after reading it I realized that with this new year there may be a lot of traditional marketers out there who are nay-saying social media simply because they are still wrapping their minds about how exactly to get their feet wet in social media. So, I’ve taken a few steps back from the posts that assume that you already know this space, and instead wanted to do an introductory post of basically “how to get started”.

1. Set up an RSS Feed Reader and Subscribe to Feeds- Go ahead and start a feed reader that follows the blogs of the social media marketing geeks, in addition to blogs that may be talking about your company. I promise you will a) learn a lot more about how to appropriately enter the space, and b) learn about who is talking about you in the blogosphere. Of course you can start by adding Ignite

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In some companies, there are never any “problems,” just “challenges” or “opportunities.” But what do you do when faced with an insurmountable opportunity?

It could be a infeasible technology project, a marketing campaign with an impossible schedule-it doesn’t really matter. What do you do when you’ve been handed a project that you’re sure can’t be done? Most people respond with fear, wondering how they are going to escape blame for the inevitable failure. But you have a choice. You can instead decide it really is an opportunity. An opportunity to change the way your company does business.

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Everybody wants to succeed. Success, though, rarely comes easy. Nor does it happen overnight.

We often hear about overnight success stories, certain companies or individuals thrown into the limelight, having made millions from something or another. What we fail to realize, or rather the people calling them an “overnight success” fail to realize, is that there is usually a pretty substantial history building up to that success. Long hours, lots of money invested, family, goals or desires sacrificed, etc.

Sure, that “overnight” success might have come from an abnormal popularity surge, but that surge stemmed from a lot of hard work that few every truly understand.

So what helps bring success to any individual or company. Here are a few steps that, if followed, won’t guarantee success, but will position you better to achieve it.
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Creating a great office environment isn’t the sole responsibility of the PIC - person in charge.

While the business owner, managers and/or supervisors certainly have an effect based on their style of management, they are only half the the total equation. The other half are the employees themselves.

I recently came across several points outlining how to be happy. I realized that these can easily be applied to the work environment from an employee’s perspective. I fully believe that every person is solely responsible for their own happiness. Life is not about what happens but what you do with what happens. Similarly, working in a happy and productive (both in terms work completed and personal development) is, in part, each person’s own responsibility. Here are a few pointers to maintain a productive environment where you work.

See work as a gift, not punishment

This is every business owner’s dream: to have employees that see work as an opportunity rather than a requirement. I’ve always made it a point to create an environment where employees don’t dread coming to work on Mondays. But I also realize that I don’t have the sole power to do this. Each employee has to have the right motivation and the right mindset.

Coming to work with a negative attitude not only makes your day worse, but it creates a negative environment for everybody else. If work is seen as something you get to do rather than something you have to do, you can actually start enjoying what you do. This gives you greater enjoyment while producing better results that get you recognized for your contribution.

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