Bolster Expertise and Credibility with LinkedIn

are you among the 27 million with a profile at linkedin.com? if you’re not, then you should be! forget over-investing in twitter and most other social media websites. time is limited. few websites help to reinforce your expertise and build credibility better than linkedin. here are 10 reasons why: 1. easy way to convey a one-page snapshot of your credentials; 2. recommendations area shows how others value your work — and are written/submitted by the referral (not created by the beneficiary and green-lighted by the referral); 3. your recommendations of others show what you value in others; 4. sync with your blog to broadcast latest posts; 5. higher value linkback(s) to three of your website(s), given linkedin’s solid page rank; 6. each link can include a descriptive tag that boosts seo value; 7. visitors stay an average of 7.3 minutes; 8. “visitors of this profile also visited…” functionality provides a glimpse into visitors’ intentions; 9. groups provide an insight into your interests — and feeds deliver poignant topics by email that keep you on your feet; 10. ability to embed animated presentations of your work.

New York Times Educates on Google Tools

when you’re in the business of providing complex marketing like search engine optimization (seo), it’s easy to overlook the basics — like the fact that many people don’t know even the baseline tricks that google has to offer. thanks to lelei lelaulu for pointing me towards a new york times article that shows off google’s many bells and whistles. if you’re a google newbie or someone who hasn’t fully explored what it can do, then hit the above link!

New Logo Design, ID and Bio — Kontinental

completed an identity refresh this morning for kontinental, an entertainment venture with ties in africa, europe and north america. i created the original logo in 2007, with three key changes enabled this past week. drop the word “entertainment” from the entity name. revise the color palette to a cool gray and two shades of gold. introduce new iconography — a winged hero and a cheetah.

click on to read the biography i crafted for kontinental’s founder, nana opoku. Read the rest of this entry »

“An Educated Consumer is Our Best Customer”

i’m not saying you should teach consumers every last detail of your expertise. i’m asking that you be more generous with your knowledge. take the time to show what you know, how you can help, how to avoid a more serious problem than he/she already has, etc. sometimes, this will take the form of free tips for how to resolve problems without your intervention. i know, it may sound counter-intuitive, even a little crazy — but it’s all in how you view your time and expertise! you want consumers who know they have a problem, who have exhausted patchwork solutions or procrastination and who now know that it takes a real expert to save the day. you want consumers who place a high value on your time, talent and offering. a department store chain named syms once sloganed that “an educated consumer is our best customer” — and they are right. a good example of this is a recent “free pre-inspection kit” i provided for a home improvement contractor. featured are topic after helpful topic and many free tips. i even invite the consumer to inspect the problem for his/herself and provide a checklist to aid in the process. those who schedule an appointment behind this kit are educated and ready to fix their problem.