Authenticity - Competitive Positioning

I have attended a number of conferences and have heard a number of speakers talk to this notion of "authenticity" whether it is a leadership style or how you are showing up everyday. Recently, Peter Swinburn, President and CEO of Molson Coors Brewing Company eloquently spoke about "authentic leadership" and how he uses this with his team. "Talk about purpose and vision every chance you get. If you want people to believe then you need to believe. You need to lead authentically. These thoughts belong to you." Over and over again, the topic of "authentic leadership" keeps appearing. Joanna Murray, President of the Women's Vision Foundation and Reverend Cynthia James also spoke about "Authentic Leadership." How are you showing up?

To take this step one step further... How does your authentic leadership tie within your business brand? Are you truly taking a look at who you are to further see how this translates to your business? Quite possibly you alone separates yourself from your competition whether you are running a business or you are working within one?

Facebook ~ Time for a Change

As many of you have heard, Facebook recently made a number of changes to its platform. Of course, this would not be online Internet Marketing unless there was a change. Google has all of us constantly sitting with baited breathe to find out how their algorithm changes from an SEO perspective. Why not move this anticipation to Facebook? They have ever right to make online Marketing just as interesting.

Regardless, this update is intended to drive more relevant, content rich discussion to the table verses the standard mundane updates that does essentially drive people a bit batty. The focus now is based on product to client profiling as well as brand awareness. So instead of letting the masses know that you are grabbing a coffee at the local coffee shop, now Facebook will let the world know that you are having a Hazelnut Frap at Starbucks located at 18th and California. And oh, by the way, you better have something interesting to say or else your post may not show in the updated news section.

Don't be too surprised either to find one day, Facebook will get so good at profiling you that they may just have the ability to let the world know what you are going to be doing even before you get to that coffee shop to get your grande roasted brew coffee.

Feeling a Sense of Security

In the late hours, I am feeling a huge sense of relief after diligently entering all of my log in and password information into a protected, secured tool called "1 Password". For so many years, I had all of this critical, personal information sitting in my contact folder within Outlook. I am absolutely amazed that no one accessed this information given the strong tendency of hackers or identity theft gurus making their way to it. Regardless, it is safe and sound and I strongly encourage you to make the one-time investment to secure your critical information without delay. Whether you decide to use http://1password.com or another vendor, it is well worth having piece of mind. Also god forbid if something happens to me, my husband has all of my information in one single place that can be accessed at anytime. I'm also finding this to be an exceptional organizational tool. How great it is to finally have all of my log in and password information in a single place.

For more information about 1 Password, go to http://1password.com.

Launching of Get Known, Get Big Marketing - Tip 1 - Adding a Cool Insiginia to Business Cards or Marketing Materials

Welcome to my Get Known, Get Big Marketing blog! Here I will be teaching you among others how to "Get Known, Get Big" over the Internet utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as Social Media integration. With this space continuing to be ever so changing, I will de-mystify technology and provide you with practicable applications to simply make these changes to your web site. These postings combined with your diligence to stay in front of SEO will allow you to remain competitive online. What this means to you is more traffic to your web site which equates to more sales. We have moved to a place where placement is now more important than presence. Therefore take hold and be open to my sights.

With a great turnout, I spoke this past Saturday 5/14 at the Create Denver Expo (http://bit.ly/mkr6ib). I taught the art and business community "The 8 Steps How to Master Search Engine Optimization".

One of the useful tips that people loved from the conference was creating a cool insignia (yes, I made up this name and I like it) that can be scanned via a PDA device off of your Marketing materials or business card. You can go to bitly.com to locate this insignia. Simply go to their web site, enter your URL into the box, press submit. This will create a shorter URL for you. Click on "Info Page+" this will create your cool insignia. View attached. If you have an Apple IPhone, get the QR barcode scanner at i-nigma qr datamatrix bar code reader.

Until the next post...

Darci Barlow
President and Owner of Get Known, Get Big Marketing
http://www.GetKnownGetBigMarketing.com