In my presentation called “Beyond the Website” (watch here) I have a slide that says this.

“The Internet is for kids and geeks, and MY customers will never be online.” – Unnamed 1990’s executive.

I don’t remember where I found that quote online, and I have no idea if it’s real or not (I bet it is). But I love it because it illustrates the short-sighted approach that many people take when emerging trends and technologies grab the hearts and minds of the world.

The thing is, people are still saying that quote, but today they’re inserting social media in place of “the Internet”. You know, things like Twitter, and Facebook and Myspace and all the rest. All of those things are just for kids and geeks… right.

Let’s redo the quote for effect. You know you know somebody like this.

“Social media is for kids and geeks, and MY customers will never use social media.” – Unnamed executive.

At this point I could go on and on about how that’s a big fail waiting to happen, and most surely a pink slip for the person who said it down the road as their business lags behind competitors who didn’t think that way.

However… let’s not do that. Let’s prove them wrong. On another slide in my presentation I point to a BusinessWeek piece that defines the 6 types of social media users.

BIG Image of above graphic

If you could really dig into this slide you would see that it’s not just kids that are using social media. The scale skews to younger, sure, but in fact, this data (which is two years old btw) does indeed show a major trend toward “older” people using social media in all kinds of facets.

Ignore social media at your own peril. This is your last warning!

Today I’m talking with author and book marketing expert Warren Whitlock. You can also find Warren’s stuff at BookMarketingStrategy.com. (Actually, this interview is long overdue to be aired, sorry Warren).

Click the play button below to listen to the podcast!

I had the pleasure of meeting Warren at Blogworldexpo this year and even had lunch with him and Dave Taylor. Warren is a pro who knows his stuff and has the experience to back it up. If you’re going to write a book, you’re going to need to learn how to market it. Warren gives some good advice for how you’re going to get it done.

He’s a swell guy too! Here are the show notes:

How important is it for an author to be a marketer nowadays?
What’s the first thing I have to do to start my book?
After I start a blog and reserve my name, how much work is involved before I start the book?
You should have a blog or website for you name AND your book title, use both.
Become a thought-leader in the community of your niche.
Use feedback from readers to build your book.

A few weeks ago I got to spend a day and a night hanging out with Gary Vaynerchuk of Winelibrary.tv as he was in town for a book signing. The full video experience of my time spent with him will come later, but for now, I have a video about a person I met who was in Gary’s entourage… Marianne Frantz of the Cleveland Wine School.

The video below is an interview I did with Marianne about the Cleveland Wine School, with a funny impromptu appearance from Gary V in a few places. Pretty funny. The video was shot at lunch after a live taping of the Thunder show with Gary in Cleveland Browns Stadium (personal video on that to come later). Go watch, great episode.

Why am I posting this video about a regional company when my blog is read by thousands of people who don’t live in Cleveland? Well, it’s a perfect example of how anyone can make a video commercial for their company with a simple inexpensive camera. Something I encourage all businesses to do. Tell me this isn’t a video you’d like to show to your customers to educate them about your business?

The whole thing took me 10 minutes to edit, and by using the Flip camera, easy to record. Why aren’t you doing video yet? Give me a ring so I can help you get on it, or sign up for my free Online Video Toolkit for some free advice.

Here’s the video on Youtube if you wish to view it there.

Shmuly gets it. He’s taken a traditional piece of Jewish headdress called the Kippah and combined it with current trends, in this case the Presidential election here in the USA. Check out his product at VanityKippah.com. Pretty smart.

In this video I talk more about how smart marketers like Shmuly know to take their product or service and combine it with current events or trends to make more sales and get publicity. It works. You can do it too.

Take a moment and think about how your product or service relates to what’s hot right now. Sports (the Olympics?), entertainment, politics? You get the point. Now make the connection and do something creative. The press will eat it up.

Click To Play

Music on video from http://cantorgottesman.com/chazzan-first-cd.htm

You like shoes, no? Well, you will like this contest I’m having with my friends over at Zappos.com. Five people will win a $100 Zappos.com gift certificate to buy anything they want on their site. And all you have to do is… well, watch the video. It’s easy to enter, believe me.

Oh yeah, and are you a blogger or webmaster? You should sign up for the Zappos affiliate program and earn bucks for referring sales. Great program that converts well. And don’t forget to follow @Zappos on Twitter.

Click here to see all the current entries at Flickr. Yes, ladies, you can wear flip-flops to enter. :)

This is a cool video for many reasons. 1. Because my friend Kevin Savetz is a great guy. 2. He’s got a great new site that you should all checkout that is very smart at ReviewRoundup.com, and 3. We did a dual Flip cam video. He pointed his at me, and I pointed mine at him. I flipped back and forth between the camera footage to create a neat interview effect.

Note: Kevin is a smart guy who builds sites like this that do very well. You could learn a thing or two from him by looking at some of his sites and how they’re built. Very smart.

In part one of my self-imposed goal to learn how to play the ukulele, I showed you how clueless I was, and how out of tune I was. In today’s video, I show you how I figured out how to tune it, and how I learned a few chords.

This is a fun little instrument and I cannot wait to get better and begin writing some songs that I can perform on camera. Give me some time though. Have you ever tried to learn how to play an instrument from scratch? It’s hard. Any tips… send them over!

Last week I talked about being inspired. So much so in fact that I bought a Ukulele because it sounded like fun to try and learn it, and because I could learn to play it on camera.

So here’s my first video of the Ukulele out of the box and not tuned. Pretty bad. I will be filming myself learning how to play it and you can watch the progress over time. Maybe I’ll even get good enough to start playing some songs.

Why do this? Because it’s fun and I like music and well, it will make for good videos. I hope. Also, sometimes the best videos are those of you just trying something. When was the last time you took a risk and just tried something?

How’s your customer service? If it’s bad, you’re probably not very successful. It means… everything to your business… and your brand.

This video talks about my views on how good customer service is essential to your success. And I’m not just talking about “customers who buy stuff”. You may not sell anything. How you deal with people who read your blog, or who watch your videos, or who interact with your brand in any way… those are customers. Believe it. Everyone you interact with is your customer. You are always selling, indirect or direct.

Got something to add to this discussion? Leave a comment below or hey, send me a video about it and I’ll post it here!

Are you tenacious in your live and in your plan for success? In this video I talk about how never giving up can lead you to your dreams. It’s pretty simple really. If you’re passionate and committed to something, and if you never give up the dream and stick with it… you’ll win.