Running a web development/marketing business involves a lot of sales. Then again, running any business involves a lot of sales. You sell your idea to investors, you sell a product (even if free) to customers, you sell your culture to employees, etc. But let’s talk about selling a product to customers. In our case, we sell big web development or marketing projects. The bigger the better. But even if your company sels a $5 product, the following still applies to you.
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Last year, while at a Venture Capital forum at Rice University, I learned a very important lesson that has helped me become a more successful entrepreneur. At one of the networking sessions of the forum I ran into Blair Garrou, a venture capitalist at DFJ Mercury. At one point during our conversation, I asked him if he had any advice for an entrepreneur. Right away he told me, “fail early, fail often“.
I have been involved in a number of startups in the past three years. In that time, I’ve learned a lot from the things I’ve done right and wrong. I’ve received a lot of advice – both good and bad – but the Fail Early, Fail Often advice has stayed with me. Over time I’ve come to understand how important it is to follow it.
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Social media is a hot topic nowadays. Much like a fad, the topic seems to have come up from nowhere, and companies everywhere are struggling to understand the ins and outs of adapting their marketing strategy to social networks. But therein lies the problem – social networking is not a fad. Rather, it’s a fundamental change in the way people interact with each other and, perhaps more importantly for you, with brands and businesses.
This means that only a true understanding of this fundamental change can enable you to come up with the right social media strategy for your business. Social media marketing is not rocket science, but it’s not as easy as it looks, either. So with that said, I leave you with the 7 deadly sins of social media marketing.
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Facebook already has 600 million users, and is the most popular social network in the world. If that doesn’t surprise you, how about this: Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg is richer than Steve Jobs, and has been since September of 2010. But if you haven’t joined Facebook yet, don’t worry – in this short tutorial we’ll help you get your very own Facebook profile up and running. (more…)
Two weeks ago, Google announced the third set of layout changes to its social network, Orkut. There are quite a few changes, but so far only a few users are able to see them. Some users are already seeing bigger profile pictures (a much needed change), a new menu on the left, full-screen photo viewing, and a new way of viewing user profiles.
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