Is creativity getting old? Or are you?

'March 14' photo (c) 2011, Chad and Kellye - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/I read an interview with Steven Spielberg years ago that asked the reason for his incredible success. His reply was surprisingly simple: he had never lost his sense of childlike wonder. He could still be excited by a haunted house or thrilled by the idea of a dinosaur.

If hanging on to our childhood is the secret to creativity, how do you rate?

When we were young we often expected more of ourselves and demanded more of others. We had a vision of what we wanted to be, and to meet it we set our own standards of acceptable conduct. No fries except on Saturday; no wearing out-of-style clothes even when you’re just hanging out with friends. But then everyone aged and along the way, some things changed. We became more mature and realized that beauty was “not as important” as it once seemed. Our ideals were no longer seen to be practical, and high standards no longer realistic. As Dan Hill used to sing, “Freedom takes on new meaning when you’ve got a family of five.”

But in reality, did the ideals become less practical, or did we just become less idealistic? Did we become wiser or did we become lazy? [Continue reading…]

Avoiding Facebook’s new timeline? Your time’s almost up!

Are you ready for Facebook's timeline? Now you have to be!If you’re on Facebook — hmmm, does that leave anyone out? — you’re already familiar with the new “timeline” feature. Love it or hate it? Using it already, or avoiding it like the plague? No matter what you think of it, your option of whether or not to use it will soon be history.

Facebook announced today that the timeline will soon be mandatory on everyone’s profile. Yep, even yours. As they put it…

Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you’ll have 7 days to preview what’s there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.

[Continue reading…]

Five ways to market with blogging and social media.

'handshake' photo (c) 2003, buddawiggi - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Sales are built on trust and relationships. If we believe something does what we want and the price is right, we’ll buy it. On the other hand, if we don’t think the ingredients are safe or we just don’t believe it’s going to work, we won’t buy. And if we don’t like or trust the person selling it or representing it in a commercial, we almost certainly won’t buy. Trust is big.

To address this reality, companies often rely on trusted celebrities or word of mouth to increase sales. If we hear someone we trust say they like a product, we transfer our trust from that person to the product. A big company might be lying just to increase sales. But would Mom? The guy next door who knows cars inside out? Beyonce? No way they’d lie. We believe them, and we therefore believe in the products they recommend.

That’s where blogging and social media can come into play.

[Continue reading…]

January’s just-gotta-share YouTube videos: crazy inventions.

Herscher's Page Turner is gaining fans around the world thanks to social mediaI remember spilling a glass of water into a client’s lap once. We were eating at a restaurant in Miami, and my elbow nudged the end of a knife sitting by my plate. That knife then pushed my glass forward, which hit a plate in the middle of the table, and that moved a vase and then another plate in the middle that then knocked over my client’s full glass of water, pouring the contents directly into his lap. It was a moment of horror and embarrassment, but at the same time I kept thinking, “Woah, that was amazing!” Sorry, Tony, and thanks for being such a good sport. Truth be told, recreating that sequence of events would have been no small feat. It was just meant to happen.

Even that sequence fell far short of what Joseph Herscher created though with the superfantastic page turner that he invented. This machine’s got everything from strings and balls to a burning fuse and a Bunsen burner, tipping books, a vase, a computer, a hair dryer, and of course a hamster, to mention just a few of the pieces in this ingenious invention. Remember the game Mousetrap? It’s got nothing on the Herscher’s Page Turner!

Check it out, and be prepared to be amazed… [Continue reading…]

Marriage proposals, basketball, Lego and social media. A good idea?

A marriage proposal by Lego may be much more strategic than proposing at a basketball game.

There aren’t many moments in life more notable — and either more fantastically rewarding or mercilessly soul crushing — than the marriage proposal. It’s a time when you want everything to be just right, in the hope of getting the perfect answer. So the last thing anyone would ever want to do would be to [...]

[Continue reading…]

SEO for Newfoundland and Labrador companies

Somewhere in St. John’s, a management team is wondering about search engine optimization. As they consider the coming year and their forays into new markets, some important questions rise up: Can SEO help them take their Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) company into global markets? Can their company that has until now only played on the [...]

[Continue reading…]

5 ways to make your New Year’s Resolutions stick!

I’m a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, whether for marketing a small business or being a Dad or just staying healthy. I like the idea of trying to be better. So it’s always a bit disappointing when the topic comes up, and 90% of the people in the room say they don’t even bother making [...]

[Continue reading…]

Your marketing sucks? Make sure it’s all your fault.

Like the rest of us, you probably hate to be blamed. For anything. If something goes wrong, you’re thinking “I didn’t do that!” That’s normal. But what’s easy to miss when there’s trouble is that it’s often best when it is your fault. Whether in business or at home, being at fault for big failures [...]

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...[Continue reading…]