Branding of your website is important because it contributes to the long term value of your business.  It creates a sense of customer confidence.   For a small business - your brand is the niche value you bring to the market.  Its the expectation of value in the customers mind about your product.  Part of building a brand is creating an impression in the market.   There are a number of ways you can do that with your website.

• Memorable Logo - a logo is not a brand although it represents one...

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Everybody wants a website these days - but they often don't know what to do with it.  Its really not up the web designer to write your copy or figure out your marketing strategy.  And most small businesses don't know how to do those things very well and often don't see the value in it.  I am not going to answer all of those questions today.  But I would like to outline the basic elements that a small business owner should look for in a new or redesigned website.

• BRANDING - The site should ...

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Some great business books.

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Twitter is a powerful tool to help businesses.  Now that tweets are being indexed at Google - Twitter is becoming a powerful search mechanism.  Its no longer necessary to have a large following to get some reach. 

• Its a great idea to twitter events that happen on your web site. 
• Enable users to tweet almost every page. 
• Make sure you use some good keywords or #hashtags to allow your tweets to be found.
• Use keywords that get retweeted - search around for these list - I have found that "fre...

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Here are more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O'Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.

Here's the deal: it's free. Download it here. Or from any of...

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Your tagline is not your brand, your position statement or your brand promise. But it is a short versatile expression of who you are. It is a meaningful distillation of your brand. What I like most about a tagline is that it is sometimes experimental and can be quickly changed. Many websites have their taglines displayed next to their logo and interestingly enough they are often 3 things - like "Build Create Empower" - which I find a bit boring. Some sites actually name their site using a tag...
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Anatomy of Buzz Revisited – Emmanuel Rosen revisits his best seller and updates how buzz works with today’s new tools.

• Why Read This Book: Learn what gives a story and an idea “legs” and how to actually build buzz into your marketing strategy.
• Key Point: Build a community of experts and then let them speak freely about the advantages and disadvantages of your product or service.  It builds buzz and trust.

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When I started Twitter over a year ago I thought it was necessary to have followers on twitter - to advertise your recently created blog or to spread an idea.   Twitter is now becoming more like search than a conversation.  Don't get me wrong - Twitter is an important place to have small conversations and to maintain your mind share with other people. 

The first thing that clued me in is that I dont look at my home feed that often.   I am using HootSuite to manage my Twitter accounts - pers...
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World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories	David Meerman Scott	2009
What Would Google Do?	Jeff Jarvis	2009
Twitter For Dummies	Laura Fitton, Michael Gruen, Leslie Poston	2009
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