A little more than 2 years ago Chris Brogan and I were both attending the first Social Media Jungle event in New York so we decided to carpool down together. During those 5 hours or so of driving and over a dinner at a Chili’s in Middletown, CT later that night, we talked about a new project that he was launching. He was getting ready to unveil New Marketing Labs to the world and was close to signing the first contract which was going to be with Citrix Online (the folks who make GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and other similar products). That night we talked about what we thought the future of business looked like, their use of social media and how NML could be helpful. After more conversations and brainstorming, often in the middle of the night over DM, we set sail, launched NML and I relocated to the Boston area. A couple days after the launch we found ourselves on an airplane headed out to CES to tell anyone who would listen that we were there to be helpful.

Since that trip 2 years ago we have had the opportunity to work with some great companies on amazing projects. In between launching new projects for our clients, we continued to grow the Inbound Marketing Summit, launched Red Pin Marketing and The Pulse Network. There are also some really exciting projects on the cusp of launching over the coming days and weeks that I can’t wait to see after working through them for the past several months with the team.

However, as they prepare to announce these launches, I will be cheering them on instead of on the front lines. I’m excited to announce that I’m joining the team at Citrix Online as part of the corporate communications team and will be overseeing social communications.

Over the past 2 years I’ve worked closely with the folks over at Citrix including Bernardo De Albergaria, David Baeza, Lisa Horner and many others. They are among one of the brightest and most forward thinking teams that I’ve met and had the opportunity to work with. I start with Citrix Online on January 17th, a mere few hours after I return from sailing around the Grenadines. I’m looking forward to the challenges that I know are awaiting me when I get there and am really excited for what 2011 holds in store.

It’s an interesting intersection of passions for me because it combines my experiences in social media, marketing and communications along with my interests and continued research into productivity, time management and workshifting, all things which the Citrix Online products assist with.  I’m looking forward to continuing to explore all of these areas, including my role leading up social communications, in more depth in the coming year.  Throughout the year I’ll be covering a lot of this in my free newsletter (have you signed up yet?).

With the new job comes a new place to explore. Within the next couple months Laura and I will be packing up the dog, cat, putting the car on a trailer and driving a moving truck across the country to our new home, San Francisco. We’ll trade our view of the Prudential Center for the Golden Gate Bridge and for a whole new set of experiences filled with exploration.

I can’t thank Chris and the entire team at NML enough for the past 2 years. I’ve grown professionally and personally because of the great people that comprise the NML team.  Now I’m going to use those experiences and growth to help me be achieve success as I start the next chapter of my career with Citrix Online.

And don’t worry, my allegiance to the Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots will not change. Heh.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo Credit: Amanda Breann

If you’ve stopped by the blog recently instead of  only catching up via a feed reader such as Google Reader then you noticed about a month ago I switched over to the Genesis theme framework (affiliate link) and chose to use the Prose child theme. Since then I couldn’t be happier and Genesis has become the premium WordPress theme that I recommend to anyone that’s consider switching things up on their website or launching a new project.

The Genesis framework from StudioPress is excellent due in part to how easy it is to use, how fast it runs, and how it has been optimized for SEO. It also allows you to choose how much control over your website you care for. Just want to set it up with the basic settings? Great, you’ll get Genesis along with the child theme you choose up and running in just a few moments. Want to really dig in and start customizing every little feature? Even better. You don’t even have to understand HTML, CSS or any other coding language, for the most part. Just walk through the different settings and tweak to your heart’s content.

I can’t say enough good things about the Genesis theme framework. There are so many child themes to choose from that you’re able to achieve the overall look/feel that you want with minimal effort (unless, of course you want something completely custom). The child themes make Genesis the perfect theme framework to handle your blog, your company website or any other project you’re working on.

To celebrate the holiday weekend, Brian Gardner of StudioPress is running a special promotion that I think you should take advantage of.

25% Off Everything at StudioPress

Here are the full details of the StudioPress sale:

In honor of the crazy shopping traditions known as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we’re holding a big sale at StudioPress.

Starting now through next Tuesday, November 30, you can save 25% off everything we sell – including the Pro Plus All-Theme Package that gets you everything we’ve got and everything we make in the future.

Just use the code BLACK at checkout. If you decide to get the Pro Plus All-Theme Package, you’ll save an additional $62 off the list price.

This code is only good through next Tuesday. And we’re also canceling all otherStudioPress codes in existence and taking a “no discount” approach going forward.

Act Now to Save

If you’ve been considering switching over to Genesis after seeing other sites such as [chrisbrogan.com], Copyblogger, ProBlogger and others running it, you should act now to save. When this deal expires, it will be the last discount that StudioPress offers and you’ll be stuck paying full price.

And yes, if you decide to buy anything from StudioPress, I’ll get to buy an extra beer or two.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

As we have traveled across the country over the past couple years we have met so many people especially small (to medium) business owners that are jumping up and down looking for help in generating more leads, increasing sales, getting more foot traffic, more reviews and more conversations about their products or services. When we’ve had the chance to sit down and chat with these people we’ve asked them where they needed help. Their answer? They need help with everything from developing a strategy to setting up and optimizing their social accounts to designing a new website that is search engine optimized, designing listening and monitoring portals, email marketing and how to measure all of it. This is not too dissimilar from the enterprise brands that we work with at New Marketing Labs however small businesses have some unique needs, concerns and it takes someone with experience in small businesses to fully understand it all.

Over the past several months our team has been working on how we could be more helpful to small businesses. During this time, I’ve done a lot of thinking on what I’ve done at Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse over the past few years and what my competitors and the other businesses in the town where our restaurant is aren’t doing. I’ve also been researching hundreds of small business websites, online communities and talking with people in my local community to understand what their knowledge base is of social media and what they think of their current marketing plans (or if they even have one, in many cases).

With all of that knowledge and experience in hand, I’m really happy to announce the launch of Red Pin Marketing. Red Pin Marketing is powered by the great team at New Marketing Labs and backed by CrossTech Ventures. Our goal is simple: to help small businesses with their social media and digital marketing efforts. We want to help you leverage these tools to level the playing field, increase sales and grow your business.

Before you start hyperventilating, don’t worry, New Marketing Labs isn’t going anywhere. We’re still busy helping our amazing clients, working with fantastic partners and working on the Inbound Marketing Summit 2011. I’ll still be around adding my assistance as the team needs it but I will be donning a new hat as the Executive Director of Red Pin Marketing. Chris Brogan will lend his advice, guidance and mentorship to Red Pin Marketing as an Entrepreneur In Residence advisor. There are a few other changes over at NML that you Chris talks about in this post.

There is so much more to come in the days and weeks ahead that we’re really excited to begin sharing with you (including our website!). But, since I’m like a 2 year old on Christmas morning, I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer and just had to share it with you.

If you’re the owner of or work in a small to medium business, I’d like to invite you to sign up for our free small business newsletter. We have some special projects and info that we’ll be sharing that won’t be available anywhere else except in the newsletters, including one that we’ll be launching in the next few days. Make sure you don’t miss out by signing up today.

It’s an exciting time around New Marketing Labs, Red Pin Marketing and The Pulse Network.

As always, thanks for your support and all that you do. My goal is to continually be helpful to you and hopefully this is another way that I can fulfill that goal.

Did I ask you yet to sign up for the new small business newsletter?

Not to fear, on Thursday, November 18th at 2:00p EST (check your local time), I will be hosting a free webinar with Isaac Hazard from Mzinga to discuss moderation and how it can help you to protect your brand.  Heard enough? You can register now!

If you need a little more convincing, read on for the webinar description from the New Marketing Labs website.

Every day, more and more brands are engaging people in online conversations-conversations that often make them smarter, more relatable, and ultimately more effective in how they go to market. But with this newfound transparency, you can also encounter unexpected risks and liabilities. To be safe, you should be as proactive about moderating and monitoring those conversations as you are about fostering them. This upcoming webinar will help you get started and will outline how online moderation will help your company maximize-and safeguard-your social marketing investments without hampering your style.

During the webinar we will cover:

1. Defining your overall moderation strategy
2. Establishing your Terms of Service and Code of Conduct
3. Determining your moderation technology options
4. Understanding the key roles and responsibilities of a moderator

I hope you’ll be able to stop by on Thursday at 2:00p EST to join our webinar. Even if you’re not going to be able to make it, do register so that you’ll get an email when the webinar archive is ready.

Register Now!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Late last week, I switched to the Genesis Theme Framework for WordPress (affiliate link). I then decided to install the Prose child theme when it launched to help extend the backend feature set. That’s one the best parts of Genesis, it has child themes that allow you to retain the Genesis framework but easily swap out to different designs and backend options. With the Prose child theme installed I am able to tweak nearly every aspect of my website. Externally it provided a simple canvas to start from, which you’ll find similar to Thesis when it is first installed. But, if that design isn’t right for you, there are a dozen more that you can choose from, install and get up and running within a few minutes.

What I like the most about it is that the theme focuses on SEO. While focusing on content is one of the best SEO strategies you can employ, Genesis makes it super simple to optimize every page and post (if you wanted to get that granular) of your website.

The reason I decided to change was not because I was unhappy with my two previous themes: Headway and Thesis. It was that Brian Clark is a friend of mine and several of my friends have gotten behind the theme over the past couple months. Since these are all people that I trust, I wanted to test out Genesis myself. In fact, I plan on continuing to use Headway and Thesis in other projects that I will be launching.

If you’re considering switching things up around your website or blog, I’d highly consider grabbing Genesis and trying it out for yourself.

Imagine that you went to pick your children up one day and they weren’t there. Shortly after, you received a phone call threatening that you would never see your children again if you reported them missing. The phone number traces back to Egypt and the male caller spoke with an English accent. You realize that your children have been kidnapped. You suspect they have been taken to Egypt. This suspicion is then confirmed when you find out that their mother (and your ex-wife) used falsified Egyptian passports to kidnap the children and take them thousands and thousands of miles away from your home. In your search to find them you travel that long journey 5 times over the course of a year in hopes of finding any clue that will lead you to be reunited with your children.

Sound like a script for a new movie or book? Sound like your worse possible nightmare?

Unfortunately, it is neither a movie or a book. It is a nightmare but one that is being lived in reality and not in a dream state.

It is the story of the past year for my friend and colleague, Colin Bower.  You can watch Colin talk about his situation in a recent interview that was done with the Boston-based ABC affiliate.

For those wondering why this is the first they’re hearing about it, Colin has worked through the legal system for the past year and chosen not to make his struggle public. There has been a US federal warrant issued for the arrest of Colin’s ex-wife, Mirvat el Nady on charges of kidnapping and there is also an outstanding international Interpol red notice which has been issued. There has been an Egyptian court order also issued ordering Colin the right to visit with his children, Noor, aged 8 and Ramsay, aged 6. There is still much work being done by the US government to help bring Noor and Ramsay home safely. But, now, Colin is turning to the community for help in bringing awareness to the situation.

Are you willing to help raise awareness so that Colin can be reunited with his children? There are multiple ways that you can help bring Noor and Ramsay home:

1. Head over to the Facebook Page that has been set up and “like” the page.
2. Contact the Egyptian government and urge them to help: embassy@egyptembassy.net
3. Create a video, photo, or message and upload to the Facebook Page, YouTube, Vimeo and/or your blog. Tag it “noorramsay” so that it can be found easily.
4. Thank Senator John Kerry for his support thus far: support@johnkerry.com
5. Share the Facebook Page with your friends, family and colleagues encouraging them to also “like” the page and carry it forward.
6. Show your support on Twitter and encourage your network to help Noor and Ramsay by using the hashtag #noorramsay

Thank you for the help and everything you do from here. You have the power to make a difference in this very difficult situation.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

What is Facebook Marketing About?

Facebook Marketing is a deep dive into how Facebook can be leveraged by your company starting TODAY.  This book is not just a Facebook-is-cool-and-you-should-join type book.  This book provides you with actionable information that you can begin implementing into your business.  It gives you the ammunition you need to convince your boss, your board, your IT team, or your employees why they should be investing time and money on “just another social network.”

Who Should Buy This Book

Simply put: This book is designed for professionals who want to understand how Facebook can be integrated into their business.  This includes anyone from the CEO to the CMO to PR, communications, and marketing.  Besides gaining an understanding of how you can use Facebook within your business, you can also gain an understanding of how YOU can use Facebook professionally as part of your own personal/professional branding.

Where You Can Pick Up a Copy

Does all of this sound good and you are itching to grab a copy or 50 for you and your closest friends? Well, first of all, thank you. It means a lot.  You can grab your copy from one of these awesome retailers:

Facebook Marketing – Amazon

Facebook Marketing – Barnes & Noble

Facebook Marketing – Borders

Facebook Marketing – 800CEORead

Facebook Marketing – Books-a-Million

Note: There is a Kindle edition available but not iBooks or audio versions, as of yet.

How Facebook Marketing is Organized

Facebook Marketing is organized into 11 chapters:

Chapter 1, “From Dorm Room to Boardroom: The Growth of Social Networks,” takes you from the beginning of Facebook in the founders’ dorm rooms at Harvard University all the way to their corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California.  This chapter provides an introduction to the phenomenon known as Facebook including major milestones such as opening the platform to everyone, going mainstream, and the major growth data points.

Chapter 2, “Getting Around Facebook: The Basics,” deals with getting you around Facebook by taking a stroll through the basics.  This includes a summary and detailed description of the basic profile options, notes, photos, videos, comments, likes, friends lists, Facebook Chat, and many other features.  This chapter provides you with a foundation for going deeper into the platform and understanding how it can be integrated into your business.

In Chapter 3, “Establishing a Corporate Presence,” you explore establishing a corporate presence including a deep dive into Facebook Pages and Groups.  You gain an understanding of how to set up each of these features for your business, how they can be used, and which ones you should select based on your needs.

Chapter 4, “Extending Facebook into the Interwebs: The Power and Reach of Facebook Connect,” breaks out of the framework of Facebook and discusses extending Facebook into the interwebs through the use of tools such as Facebook Connect.  You learn how this major feature has been integrated into websites and how you can use it for your needs.

In Chapter 5, “Facebook Advertising: How and Why You Should Be Using It,” you can learn about the Facebook advertising platform and why you should use it.  You learn about creating an ad, setting a budget, selecting cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impressions (CPM), discovering your target audience, and using Facebook Insights (analytics).

To gain a full experience while using Facebook, you need to extend its capabilities with Facebook Apps.  In Chapter 6, “Extending the Experience with Facebook Apps,” I discus plug-ins such as flickr, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and several other applications that can help you to connect with your prospects, customers, and fans.

One of the most addressed issues throughout Facebook’s history has been privacy.  Chapter 7, “Addressing Privacy Concerns,” reviews the changes of Facebook’s privacy policy, whether you should have a personal AND professional Facebook account or if you need a single profile, and several other issues as it deals with your privacy, your customers’ privacy, and the privacy of your company.

By the time you make it to Chapter 8, “Developing a Facebook Marketing Strategy,” you will have developed a deeper understanding of Facebook and how you can use it as another part of your marketing toolbox.  Chapter 8 helps you to pull all these tools together to develop a Facebook marketing strategy.

With all the described options, you learn that one of the best uses of Facebook for your business is through the development of communities.  But how do you pull all of this together? Chapter 9, “Using Facebook to Develop Communities,” teaches you how you can use Facebook to develop communities.

Because you’re not the first company to jump into Facebook, Chapter 10, “Best in Class,” shows you some of the Best in Class companies that have fully utilized Facebook to build communities, engage with their audiences, and become more social.

To finish, Chapter 11, “Shaking the Crystal Ball: What’s Next for Facebook,” shakes the crystal ball and tries to guestimate what’s next for Facebook.  This is your sandbox to play in to see if you can figure out where Facebook goes from here.  Place your bets and let ‘em ride!

A Bit of a Warning

While I did my best to keep updating the manuscript, eventually my publisher cut me off from making edits since the book had to head off to the printers and to store bookshelves.  That means that you should expect that some of the stats have changed and that there have been feature set changes.  But, the underlying core is the same.  The theories, strategies and tactics are the same.

Special Thanks

I just really wanted to say thank you for all of the never-ending support.  This opportunity wouldn’t have happened without each and every one of you.  Should you choose to pick up a copy, thank you for skipping a few coffees to grab it.  I hope that you’ll find it useful.

If you have already read it, I’d love to hear your feedback.  What did you think? What can be improved upon in the next edition?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

This was originally posted over on the New Marketing Labs blog. I thought you’d find the upcoming webinar useful too so I wanted to share it here.  I hope that you can join us!

Are you desperately trying to figure out where your email marketing and social media efforts come together to form a seamless digital marketing strategy?
If you’re nodding your head up and down as fast as you can then we’re here to help!  On Wednesday, May 12th at 2:00p EST I’ll be hosting a webinar along with DJ Waldow of Blue Sky Factory to yap about new media strategy and how social media and email marketing can work together.

During the webinar you’ll:

• Gain an understanding of the new media market and its benefits
• Learn why email marketing is the digital glue and how it easily integrates with social media
• Take away strategies and tools for measuring results and using them to optimize future campaigns
• Have access to examples of real-world marketers using these channels effectively
• Walk away feeling EXCITED about email marketing and social media

What makes me so excited for this webinar is how passionate and knowledgeable DJ and the entire team over at Blue Sky Factory is when it comes to email marketing.  Every time I chat with anyone from their team or hear them speak at our events or other conferences, I always learn something new.

So, will you join DJ and I from the comfort of your office, bed or local coffee shop for our webinar on 5/12 and come chat all things email marketing and social media?

Make sure you bring your questions, problems and confusion with you to the webinar and we’ll do our best to deal with everything you can throw at us.  Let’s just make sure it’s about email marketing and we’ll be fine.  Deal?

Photo Credit: tiny banquet committee

The end of 2009 and the start of 2010 has been extremely busy at New Marketing Labs.  We keep getting opportunities to work on lots of fun projects with great partners.  This has kept me flying in airplanes.  Already this year I’m at 50% of the flights I took all of 2009.  When I’m actually home for a weekend, I’ve been spending it over at my steakhouse where we continue to be fortunate that the community chooses us as their restaurant of choice for a romantic evening out.  In fact, we were just named the Best Steakhouse in the Pioneer Valley and continue to break our monthly sales goals.  Additionally, the past 3 months I’ve had to really keep my head down to finish my first book, Facebook Marketing, due out on May 20th.  I just sent the final edits off to my publisher this week and it’s at the printer now. Yay!  When I haven’t been on a plane, at NML, in the kitchen, or writing, I’ve tried to spend that last little bit of time available in the day with Laura.

While none of these things are good excuses for not stopping by and sharing my thoughts with you, I wanted to bring you up to speed on the past few months.  I hope that you’ll tune back in and we’ll keep exploring together.

How have you been?  What are you up to?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo Credit: Tobias Sieben

Thank you for the continued support. I’m really looking forward to learning from you and hopefully share some helpful material throughout the rest of 2010.

Subscribe via Email

Don’t have time to check in with your feed reader but still want to get any new content? Sign up via email and receive any new content in your inbox every morning. What’s better than a little bit of Justin along with your coffee? Let’s be real now….

Subcribe via Google Reader

Google Reader happens to be my favorite RSS reader and I highly recommend it. I love that we can share and learn together using something as simple as a feed reader.

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Realizing that Google Reader isn’t the only feed reader out there, feel free to grab add to your reader-of-choice.

Subscribe in a reader

Thank You

Finally, thank you for all of your continued support. I love every minute that I get to spend with you either here, on one of the various networks or, even better, in real life. Keep doing super cool stuff!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo Credit: Frank Gruber

]]> http://justinrlevy.com/2010/01/are-you-subscribed-yet/feed/ 4