So the word on the street is that 2009 is the “year of small business.” And everyone’s looking for the marketing silver bullet. How to integrate old and new? How can I use Facebook? What role might twitter play in building my business? Where do I begin? What’s the ROI of all this friending, tweeting and linking? As David Meerman Scott is fond of asking, what’s the ROI of putting your pants on in the morning? There are no easy answers. Building a business is more about faith than fortune. It’s more about passion than profit....

Thank you to everyone who has made this past year so spectacular for me, both professionally and personally. I’ve been lucky enough to meet many of you in real life, and I hope to meet more of you in 2009. Because no matter how miraculous technology becomes, nothing takes the place of a warm smile and a hug or handshake. Which leads me to my gift to you: a simple suggestion. Go offline. For at least a day. Resist the temptation to go back online when you run out of things to do, because in that time void magic can happen. Mindless chatter over chopping...

The secret to being extraordinary is simple – go against human nature. “Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.” ~ Anonymous 1. Ordinary: Rush to get in every game, pitch a tent on every platform and call yourself an “expert” after six weeks of non-stop twittering with the rockstars. Extraordinary – Be patient. Listen and read a lot more than you tweet and write. Concentrate on one social media network at a time. Experiment, observe and learn what works and what doesn’t. 2. Ordinary: Go...

When I heard Taylor Davidson was coming to Charlotte (thanks, Lyell) and checked out his website, Unstructured Ventures and blog I knew I had to meet him. I mean, here was a strategy and finance consultant for start-ups who had recently quit a miserable job in corporate direct marketing to hit the highways and travel across the country. I met him through twitter. Surely he had an amazing social media plan for attracting budding entrepreneurs along the way. Um, no. “I’m just heading in the direction of friends and seeing what happens,” he...

All the hulabaloo surrounding Matt Bacak’s press release, talk about defining the ROI of social media and posts about how self-promotion is social media taboo got me thinking that we social media types have the potential to be a pretty dysfunctional bunch. I’m first in line for the codependent award. I’m very uncomfortable selling myself. I’d love to twitter with you fine folks all day long. I’d happily spend the coming months blogging, networking and throwing snowballs on Facebook. But that’s not going to pay my mortgage. Beth...

Disclaimer: I started writing this post before my good friend Scott Hepburn wrote this post. They’re great complements to one another, though, dontcha think? Matt Bacak is “The Powerful Promoter” an old-school (as old school as you can get online) email and direct response marketing coach who writes Dan Kennedy style books like Secrets of the Internet Millionaire Mind. I don’t care for his style. I wouldn’t use it myself. I suspect he’s a dying breed. But I have a question for everyone out there who is calling him an idiot...