Never a Lack of Ideas

I did it! I reached 500 contacts on LinkedIn. It's the highest number of contacts reported by the site — it only shows "500+" contacts from here forward. I've been watching my total ever since I hit 450 and I've been getting increasingly excited about hitting 500. When I hit 500 today, I expected a congratulatory email, a new view of the site, or maybe some other cool surprise when I logged in. But instead I got... nothing. Any Excuse for a Party LinkedIn is missing a perfect opportunity to reward its power users with something special when they hit 500 contacts. It would have been so easy for them to send me an email to say thank you for using the site. Or they could have Tweeted a congratulatory message to me today. But instead, my big moment was anticlimactic. I'm an important user for LinkedIn: I've given them tons of information about myself, and I'm on the site a lot, so I see a lot of ads. It's in their best interest to keep me co...

Some people believe the world's first advertisement was created on a sidewalk in the ancient city of Ephesus. The photo below is of the ad, carved into the street. The etched left foot is a call to action for people to turn left. Depictions of a heart and a woman represent a brothel. So the ad says, "turn left here to find a brothel." Last week, I was in London and I saw the ad below. The arrow clearly lets us know there's a Subway just 20 seconds ahead. Isn't it incredible how the more things change, the more they stay the same? Add This To Your To-Do List The reason this type of advertising is still around today is because it's the most basic, fundamental, and important type of marketing communication a business can do. That's why it's the first marketing communication must-have I wrote about in my book : Utilize your physical location if you have a brick-and-mortar presence. That means putting a sign outside your business to let peo...

For more than 25 years, Metra, the commuter railroad in the Chicagoland area, has had a wonderful newsletter called On the Bi-Level. It used to be a fantastic tool for interacting with riders. The newsletter is printed every month and distributed on each train in the system. The best two parts of the newsletter used to be: "Sounding Board" was a forum for riders to ask Metra questions. Metra would write back with hilarious, sometimes snarky, responses. "Sound Off" was by far the best newsletter feature. Riders would write in to complain about fellow riders. The stories they told were incredibly entertaining. Here's one of my favorite submissions, from an August 2006 letter (featured in the absolutely awesome 25th anniversary issue ): "Today I saw an all-time first. ...A young brunette began fumbling with her purse, pulled out a can of aerosol hair spray and began spraying her hair. The man behind her gagged a bit but no one said a word. Unbelievab...

Let's spice up some things that are traditionally boring: LinkedIn requests and out-of-office emails. Why? Because doing so surprises and delights people, and it raises your cool factor (trust me, I'm an expert in cool factor...). LinkedIn Requests   Every time you request to connect with someone on LinkedIn, the same default email will be sent on your behalf if you don't change it: "I'd like to add you to my professional network." Boring! Why not spend five seconds and change it up? Here are three that I've sent recently to friends of mine: "Oh please, oh please, oh please!" "Let's be frienemies" — I sent this to a friend who is going to work at Yahoo. "Pretty pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!" Each one of these emails elicited a response email to me, with a little joke in return. When was the last time someone replied to your default LinkedIn email? Out-of-Office Emails "I'm currently out of the office an...

Get Flocked My twin sister Nichole leads student ministries at the church we attend . Each summer, she leads a group of high school students on a mission trip. To raise money for the trip each year, she implements the greatest fundraising idea ever: Every night during the month of May, our church's group of high school students drives to someone's house (it's usually a church member's) and plant 20 pink, plastic flamingos in their yard. This is called "getting flocked." In order to have the flamingos removed the next day, the owner of the house must donate at least $20 to the youth group. That's pretty awesome by itself, but there are fantastically fun twists: Church members can purchase flamingo insurance for $10 to prevent their house from being flocked. Church members can pay $10 to request the flocking of an uninsured house. An uninsured house can be flocked more than once during the month. There's something for everyone in this fund...

18 Minutes of Fame On April 12, 2013, I fulfilled a longtime goal: I gave a TEDx talk. I was honored to be one of six speakers at TEDx UofI Chicago. Everyone at the event was a pleasure to work with. It would be very difficult to add up all of the hours that went into preparing for my short, 18-minute talk. I think I practiced it enough to remember large parts of it for the rest of my life. I tried to bring my passion for the subject to the stage — along with a little humor and a little know-how. There's always room for improvement, but I think I did pretty well. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I must admit that I had so much fun doing the talk that I just may have to try and do another one someday. I guess we'll have to see if I have any more ideas worth spreading in the future. Add This To Your To-Do List Enjoy my talk! And let m e know what you th ought of it. There's never a lack of ideas.

Sharing is Caring To thank those of you who have taken time to read my new book and share it with a friend, I'd like to send you a nifty button I've created. Check it out there on the right, worn by one of the people to whom I dedicated the book. I'll send you a free button if you do all of the following: Read my book. (Remember, there's a completely free pdf available.) Share my book with someone. I would love if you'd write a review of it, but you can also simply tell a friend about it or share it via social media. (If you share it on social media, please include #marketingpriorities.) Let me know that you did the first two things and where I should send the button. Then, sport it on your clothes or bag everywhere you go. If you take a picture of yourself wearing it and send it to me, I'll upload it to a little photo gallery for everyone to see. I'm trying to start a movement in which organizations no longer invest time and money into market...