Last week I talked about how marketers should leverage culture to promote brands. Today I would like to talk about why we also can )and should( change culture. As I watched the video above I couldn't help but ask myself, "Is marketing changing culture? Or is culture changing marketing?" Or in other words, are these ads changing our perception of beauty or is our perception of beauty changing the ads? I still don't have the answer, but maybe it;s a little bit of both.

Back in November I shared this image on Google+. Chris Brogan , re-shared it and then 370 others followed suit! It is by far the most popular thing I have posted on Google+. Also, in April I blogged about how a piece of my content went viral on StumbleUpon, which as of today has gained over 1.2 million visitors. Every time a piece of my content goes viral its completely unexpected and leaves me asking, why? I could just ignore things and go eat hot dogs, but,

Once upon a time there was a commercial printing company. Of course this wasn't just any company. This particular company was once regarded as a leader in its region, often winning awards for excellence. However, as time passed technology evolved and changed not only the process of printing but also the consumer demands. Needing to respond to these changes, the owner of the company upgraded their production capabilities by purchasing a digital press .

Oh yes I can already hear the champagne bottles popping! Happy new year! 2012 is going to be an amazing year! Have you made your resolutions yet? If one of them is to be a better marketer then I have a secret strategy in store that is sure to get you started on the right foot! Some define marketing as a process which creates wealth. So if you want to get better at marketing then you need to get better at creating wealth.

Before I owned my own business, I worked in-house for a large real estate brokerage. If you want to learn about sales go work for a real estate company. Apart from a handful of support staff most are completely run by sales agents. I learned a lot about sales and business while working there. But the two lessons that stuck out the most were: Get Out of The Office. There are two types of real estate agents, those that sell, and those that don't sell. Now,

Pep talks are awesome aren't they? Heck, I watched the one above 6 times yesterday and I don't even like football! A good pep talk can inspire people to do amazing things. We see them all the time in sports, political campaigns, marketing, and sometimes even in our churches! I remember the first time I saw this one from the movie Braveheart, I wanted to die for Scotland! That's the thing about pep talks though is they inspire quick dramatic action. Unfortunately,

Yay! Today is Thanksgiving! FEED ME TURKEY! Ok so I know what you are thinking, Um Joe, Thanksgiving was two days ago! But, you are wrong, and in this post I am going to prove it to you. Your thanksgiving may have been two days ago, but mine is today. You see, in my family we all have different places to go on Thanksgiving which means that usually we end up celebrating together on the Saturday after. I know it sounds crazy, but if you have ever met any of my family,

When I first read about Siri I was instantly intrigued. Mainly because back in 2002 I wrote a similar piece of software called Sivle . Now of course Siri is much more sophisticated, but both applications rely on natural language processing for their conversational interface. But Siri takes this a step further by leveraging the cloud to continually improve. As you can see, I am excited about Siri, which is where my current hipster angst is sprouting from. You see,

The other night I posted the above video on Google+ with the caption, "What an idiot." Shortly after, the amazing Melanie Phung responded with: It's a matter of framing the assumptions. If you assume he wanted to come in, then, yes, he's an idiot. But if you understand that he just wanted to sit on the deck and stare at his reflection in the window, then he's just a chill dog.

The other day I saw someone Tweet about MC Hammer starting his own search engine. And I laughed. I mean seriously, who would ever expect this guy as being an innovative tech entrepreneur? I honestly thought the tweet was a joke about silicon valley hype. A little later I went and actually looked at the supposed site, and again thought it was an evolving joke. This is because the site )that hasn't launched yet( currently consist of a sign up page and a poorly done logo.

Last week I had the honor of attending and speaking at Search Exchange in Charlotte NC )along with the likes of Andy Beal(. My talk was about building brands social media. As I was preparing for my talk I felt kind of weird about the topic. The truth is, to build a brand in social media effectively you have to do a lot and spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of time doing it. True brand building in social media is an ongoing effort that entails content development, brand managers,

They are in our work places. They are in our churches. They are in our schools. They are in our government. And some times they are even in our families. There are naysayers everywhere. From this point on you have a choice, buy in to their garbage, or continue to play ball. Either way the choice is yours.

So you hire an SEO, social media guru, business coach, and who ever else is willing to take your money, and they all tell you the same thing: You need better content. At this point there is a 50% chance that they are right. So let's take a look at what you should do if they are wrong, and what you should do if they are right. If they are wrong. So your consultants have told you that you need better content. But,

Let me start off today's COJ with a little disclaimer: A lot of what you read in today's column might be wrong. Because today I am talking about football! And the truth is, I know crap about football. I mean I understand the basics, but beyond that I am kind of useless. For example, today I learned what a onside kick is, thanks to, Coach Kevin Kelley, from Pulaski Academy in Little Rock Arkansas.

Let me first start off by apologizing for what looks like a ridiculous indie art project. I mean seriously what the heck does a girl wandering in the woods have to do with this quote? Anyways do your best to ignore the picture and focus on the wise words of Mr. Mark Twain. Twain's words are spot on. Of course avoiding people that belittle your ambitions seems to be common sense. However,

So this week's COJ was going to be about the famed Walt Whitman poem " Song of Myself ". But, after I finished writing, I re-read my post and thought, "this totally blows!". I mean seriously, what was I thinking? BORING ALERT. So without even saving the post I just highlighted all 1000+ words and hit delete. Because honestly the post wasn't up to my standards, it wasn't good enough for you, and it certainly wasn't good enough for myself. To be honest with you,

A few weeks ago I had lunch with a couple of SEOs. Both of them own their own businesses. We discussed briefly a specific niche that they had both worked in and they both mentioned how it was extremely competitive in the search engines. I remember one of them saying that because it was so competitive there was no chance for a new company to come in and compete. Our discussion shifted to affiliate marketing and the huge potential for SEO's to do well with it.

I have a lot of faith in karma. I believe when you do good things, good things happen to you. I have such a strong faith in this philosophy that I practice it as much as I can in my business. So when it comes time to promote a site I look for ways that I can help others along the way. Here are 5 solid link-building tactics that not only build outstanding links, but they also help your community!

I am in the cab of my dad's pick up. We are coming home from visiting family in the South Carolina up-state. The blazing sun above and the infamous southern humidity have mixed to create an almost unbearable atmosphere. The only escape that we find, is keeping the windows rolled down and the truck moving forward. We are on one of South Carolina's many back roads.

I would say that the hardest part about becoming an entrepreneur is learning how to work with people. It's hard because everyone is different. Everyone communicates differently. Everyone has different ideas and expectations. Everyone has a different agenda. This week I learned that sometimes it doesn't matter how good you are at communication, some people are only interested in themselves. Some people are content with taking advantage of others. Some people are jerks.