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An intriguing commercial for a 2011 Honda Odyssey recently caught my attention.  I thought to myself,  “Could  I actually be considering a minivan for a future purchase.” This thought was coming from a guy who has only driven trucks and a mustang convertible over the past 20 years. The creative commercial jarred my preexisting perception of the minivanRead more

Websites, blogs and social media pages make up the bulk of a business’s web identity and contribute significantly to the public perception of the company.  Everyone agrees that maintaining an interactive and informational web William J. Corbett, Jr. presence is a marketing necessity.  Business websites let people find your business and learn about the productsRead more

There I an ongoing debate about whom one should connect with. Should people connect with people they don’t know or don’t know well? I changed my tune on this subject earlier this year. In the past I tried to limit my connections to people that I “actually” knew in the real world. This limited my ability to grow my contact list and network. Several months ago I started to contact people with whom I had some connection with or who were members of groups of which I am part. (Note: If you are a member of a group, you can directly contact other members and request to connect.) This has enabled me to grow my contact list and create new relationships.

We saw in the early and mid 1990s the growth of the internet. Businesses started to create websites and the “Field of Dreams” movie quote “If you build it they will come” was often used. We found over the years that this is the farthest thing from the truth. The truth is that if you build it they might come but probably won’t.

So if you see some idiot texting while driving or texting while crossing the street, give them a dirty look, beep at them or give them the universal hand gesture of disapproval. If you get them to stop this highly risky behavior you may be saving their lives and possibly your own.

American political campaigns, no matter if they are for local town council seats, gubernatorial races or a presidential election, they are personal branding programs. The success of these efforts can be easily determined – one candidate wins and one loses.

Then I thought about the advertisers and the commercials that I did not watch. How are they going to sell their products and services? This is and has been a challenge for several years. Here are a few predictions: There will be more commercials embedded in shows. There will be more commercials but they will be much shorter, perhaps 10, 15, or 20 seconds; they will be too short to fast forward through. When people know the commercial will be short they will continue to pay attention, which will benefit advertisers.

How can you build your own personal brand? Start by building a comprehensive database of contacts.