This is our pick for August and we’ll be discussing at the Biz-erkeley Book Club on Thursday, August 18th at 9am. I found this to be a quick and easy read. And empowering.  I’ve been on my own quest to build MarketingU into the business I want over the past year.  ...

My daughters and niece- 2 summers ago! Summer has never been my favorite season. I have always favored Fall with it’s crisp air, new beginnings, starting school year and sweater-wearing. I love a lazy beach week as much as anyone else, but only if I can read (alot)...

The big news today in the social media blogosphere is the Twitter Follow button that you can add to your website to build your Twitter audience. It is similar to the Facebook Like button that allows folks to like your Facebook page directly from your website. It is...

Tomorrow is the Biz-erkeley Book Club meeting and we’ll be discussing Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh.     In final preparation for the meeting, I’ve been doing some more poking around the book website and found this badge.   I love the concept of encouraging your...

The purpose of this post is to see if writing about a specific trending topic will in fact drive more traffic to a blog. I’ll be updating with Google Analytics to see how it goes. As you know there are many theories about when (if?) the end or Judgement Day will...

My small business clients have a lot to do and they tend to viscerally resist adding items to their plate that require ongoing maintenance.     So, Facebook pages are often not even considered because of the requirement to maintain them going forward.   It is worse to...

In spite of knowing that packaging and book covers sway the decision-maker, I sometimes think that I’m not influenced by them. The other day I had a really adverse reaction to a package and was re-awakened to their influence. Passover starts tonight and last Friday I...

Pricing is one of the more fascinating areas of consumer psychology and behavior. Marketing academics have devoted much of their research to understanding perceptions of value and price and how framing the offer can make a big difference in consumer choices. For...

Google Alerts ( http://www.google.com/alerts ) are a tool that is underutilized by most small business owners. Here are some ways to use them to monitor and grow your online presence: 1. Create a Google Alert for your name, your business name, etc. Use this to find...

There’s a lot of buzz about Groupon in the small, local business community as some have heard that it’s great and others have heard that it was terrible for small business. Let’s start with the way that it works.   If you decide to run a Groupon, you’ll work with a...