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Monthly Archives: June 2011

You Need an App For That! (More on The Daily Deal)

Posted on June 30, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

As useful as I find my Smartphone, one thing I’ve been aware of ever since I drank the Verizon Droid Kool-Aid is that I need to pay attention to how it works (that is, what Apps I have installed and what they do) in order to get the most out of it. Which is too much work, even if you’re a geek and stay on top of this stuff naturally. ... READ MORE of You Need an App For That! (More on The Daily Deal) at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Good or Bad Business Change At Groupon, Daily Deals Sites?

Posted on June 29, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 4 Comments

Don’t you love a bargain? I practically jumped out of my shoes when my local CVS gave me a free bottle of vitamins last week. Of course, first I read the fine print on the coupon that came out of the register when I used my CVS Extra Care Card. And no kidding: it really was a ten-dollar coupon for vitamins with no strings attached.

But the story is usually about the strings, not the bargain. ... READ MORE of Good or Bad Business Change At Groupon, Daily Deals Sites? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (482 words, 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service

FTC To Slap Cuffs on Google. Here’s a Better Idea

Posted on June 28, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 4 Comments

One of my clients just made the switch to an Android phone. He’s a technology consultant and über-geek, and so he understood that in going Android he’d need to make some decisions about how he uses bandwidth on his wireless device. If he stays with the data plan he’s selected, he’s better not plan to use Google Music or any other streaming service, because he’ll go broke.

And he understands this stuff. Most people don’t. ... READ MORE of FTC To Slap Cuffs on Google. Here’s a Better Idea at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (535 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

SEO: A Disgusting, Vile Idea?

Posted on June 27, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 6 Comments

Does the idea of Search Engine Optimization make your skin crawl? Do you think SEO is snake oil? Let’s go all in: Does SEO Disgust You?

Mark Schaefer at BusinessesGrow.com is disgusted by SEO. But unlike people who think SEO doesn’t work, or is some odd technology-age form of Multiple Level Marketing, Mr. Schaefer makes his point in a way that’s fair: Search Engine Optimization is a practice with a lot of loopholes, and when there are loopholes to be exploited, people will exploit them.

I agree. And I ask: is that bad? ... READ MORE of SEO: A Disgusting, Vile Idea? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (242 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Dilbert on SEO: Search Engine Optimization Really Works!

Posted on June 24, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

Scott Adams' Dilbert and the Pointy-Haired Boss on SEO

When Dilbert starts talking Black-Hat SEO, you know something real is happening.

This is today’s Dilbert. And while Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss probably doesn’t get it, you can bet that Dilbert and his creator Scott Adams sure do. Search Engine Optimization works. But while even so egregious a black-hat campaign as the JC Penney debacle can be recovered from,  Black-Hat SEO will get you dropped right to the bottom of the search heap.

But SEO Works, and it’s your best chance at successful internet marketing.

What To Do? ... READ MORE of Dilbert on SEO: Search Engine Optimization Really Works! at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (167 words, 1 image, estimated 40 secs reading time)

Filed Under: Marketing, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Remember That Racist Remark on Facebook? You’re Fired!

Posted on June 23, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 4 Comments

STOP DOING DUMB THINGS IN PUBLIC!

As beautiful a place as Santa Barbara, CA is, there’s something very, very ugly happening there. Social Intelligence, a company that supports the human resource function at other companies, has started selling intelligence it gathers on you from social media and social networking sites like Facebook.

This might not be noteworthy, except that Social Intelligence went out of their way to get permission from the FTC to offer this service.

So, to be very clear, and very simplistic, an agency of the United States Federal Government has approved your “gee, I thought that was private!” information being gathered and passed around. ... READ MORE of Remember That Racist Remark on Facebook? You’re Fired! at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (243 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Media

Wanna Come? I’m Having Dinner With President Barack Obama!

Posted on June 22, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

Dinner With President Barack Obama

Congratulate me. I’m about to have dinner with President Barack Obama.

No kidding. Just yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden dropped me a line telling me that my chance at dinner with Barack Obama—yes, that Barack Obama—was as good as anyone’s and all I need to do to get that dinner with the President is contribute five dollars.

And in very tiny print, I saw I could have dinner with President Obama without even paying that five bucks!:

... READ MORE of Wanna Come? I’m Having Dinner With President Barack Obama! at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (359 words, 1 image, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Media

You Should Trust His Ideas: Gary Kasparov Trusts Kasparov

Posted on June 21, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

For just the second time, we’re going to talk about chess.

More specifically, for a second time we’re talking about former chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov, widely considered one of the best chess players ever, and presumably, therefore, a very smart dude.

Most specifically, we’re going to talk, for a second time, about what’s become a Gary Kasparov-related theme:

Trust Your Instincts

Last year, Kasparov, a guy long considered to be what amounts to a human computer, came out and said that being the best compute-er is useful, but only up to the point where trusting your instincts works better. ... READ MORE of You Should Trust His Ideas: Gary Kasparov Trusts Kasparov at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (156 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

iPad Extends Reach, Controls Second Rate Newspaper (NY Post)

Posted on June 20, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about how The New York Observer Used Me As a Source for a Story on David Pogue. In that piece, I referred to The Observer as New York City’s fourth biggest newspaper.

The Top Three, in no particular order, are The New York Times, New York Post, and New York Daily News. I’m a Times reader, but I present the big three without comment as to which is best, because they’re all big, and being written with clearly different readers in mind it would be wrong to say that one was better than the other. ... READ MORE of iPad Extends Reach, Controls Second Rate Newspaper (NY Post) at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Media

(Don’t Do This) Starbucks On Android: The App That Takes

Posted on June 17, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 12 Comments

Starbucks Android App Battery Killer

With apologies for its quality (remember, there’s no way to do a screen grab of an Android SmartPhone, so I needed to take a picture to show you this), look at this shot illustrating my SmartPhone’s battery usage during a short period yesterday. See that 13% consumed by the official Starbucks App?

I never once used the Starbucks App during that period. ... READ MORE of (Don’t Do This) Starbucks On Android: The App That Takes at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (543 words, 1 image, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service

Apple: Bad at Customer Service, Great AT Customer Service

Posted on June 16, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 6 Comments

The Apple Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City

You might think that after the issues I’ve had with Gizmodo I’d have stopped reading them. Not so; keeping up with the glut of media/blogging outlets has made me realize that Gizmodo does great work.

I point this out in a piece about Apple and Customer Service because it was Gizmodo that put this story on the way customer service gets done at The Apple Store in front of me. ... READ MORE of Apple: Bad at Customer Service, Great AT Customer Service at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (465 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service, Media

Google Instant Pages: The SEO Game Changer You MUST Heed

Posted on June 15, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

Yesterday, Google made search better. They did! Honest! Just Ask Them!

Umm … better for SEO Consultants, maybe. Worse for you, though.

Google has announced a new feature in their search algorithm that they’re calling Google Instant Pages. And the way it works is pretty cool: when you search for something, Google will send the actual web page for the #1 result of your search to you immediately. The result is that if you click on the link, you won’t have to wait for the page to load; it’ll already be on your computer. ... READ MORE of Google Instant Pages: The SEO Game Changer You MUST Heed at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (514 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Media, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Great Marketing? Get Your Customers to Evangelize For You

Posted on June 14, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

I wasn’t thinking about Seth Godin when I got to Los Angeles for the Ph. D. robing of Dr. Barbara Yablon Maida. But a couple of evenings ago I found myself at a party attended by some very smart people. And talking about Answer Guy Central with one of those people. And I told him about the way statistics lie, using our traffic numbers as reported here as an example.

And he told me I was marketing the wrong way.

He wasn’t telling me that my elevator pitch stunk, by the way. ... READ MORE of Great Marketing? Get Your Customers to Evangelize For You at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Marketing, Media

The Internet Ruins Family Fun, Videos (Privacy)

Posted on June 13, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 11 Comments

I’m in Los Angeles for a couple of days. My sister, Barbara Yablon Maida, has just become the esteemed Barbara Yablon Maida, Ph. D. This video, shot at the graduation ceremony of the UCLA Geography Department, is the proof.

And it’s all the proof available, because my efforts to chronicle the now-she-is-a-doctor-and-I-am-incredibly-proud-of-my-sister robing of Dr. Yablon Maida were foiled by . . . the Internet. ... READ MORE of The Internet Ruins Family Fun, Videos (Privacy) at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Hubspot Evolves, Improves, Gives More Reason Not to Trust It

Posted on June 9, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 7 Comments

Ever since we published this article on why Hubspot is a bad idea for small business, we’ve been getting traffic and phone calls from people looking for a better way to do what Hubspot does.

I hope I’ve been clear that Hubspot does provide a great basket of stuff all in one place, that it’s easy to use, and that if you’re OK using a service from which there’s no graceful exit Hubspot’s entry-level plan is a real bargain. And by adding a nominal set-up fee Hubspot’s been able to unbundle questionable “consulting” services from their current pricing, so the numbers are easier to understand (presented here in case Hubspot pricing changes): ... READ MORE of Hubspot Evolves, Improves, Gives More Reason Not to Trust It at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (649 words, 2 images, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change




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