Using Pinterest as a social sharing space is obvious for some brands; retailers, travel destinations, or any business that has a visually interesting products to share.  For other companies, such as services or information providers, how to use Pinterest might not be as clear.

Wedding 'Cheese' Cake

The beauty of Pinterest is that it allows brands, retail or service, the chance to show customers that it ‘gets’ them.  It understands their lifestyle, wants to share images that are important to them, and can help them, even if the picture that they’re pinning isn’t for one of their products.

Remember in ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ when Kris Kringle sent a Macy’s customer to Gimbels to find the right roller skates?  Try to think about creating boards and pinning items that will be most valuable to your customer, not simply crafting a ‘straight up’ sales pitch.

I decided to take a look at some brands that I assumed would be on Pinterest, and see what they were doing.  Then I thought I’d take a look at some companies on Pinterest who would probably have to get more creative with boards, since they were services or non-profits.

The Obvious Pinterest Users:

The Cooking Channel  The possibilities are endless here really, and The Cooking Channel has plenty of boards dedicated to a all kinds of different recipes, holidays, and food types.  There are some fun and creative boards here too, including one called “Play With Your Food List” and “A World of Hot Wings”.  They’ve taken time to get specific with boards, which makes a lot of sense in their world.  Drilling down and categorizing boards by food or event type will make the browsing experience much more pleasant.

Whole Foods Market  Of course, there’s the obvious – recipes, food items, holiday cooking.  The not-so-obvious and really interesting boards here are: food art, kitchen gadgets, and a whole board dedicated to reused/recycled DIY projects.  And who am I to argue with a whole board dedicated to cheese?  And not just cheese you can buy at Whole Foods, mind you, but ideas for displaying cheese, cheese art, and yes, a goat-cheese wedding cake.

Whole Foods understands that the products they sell are just part of the lifestyle that is important to many of their customers.  They acknowledge that by sharing content that is beyond their products.

Pottery Barn Kids – Boards are broken out in a variety of ways, including the obvious nursery and kids’ room decorations.  But beyond that, you can view boards with pins for kids’ parties, recipes, arts and crafts projects, and baby shower ideas.  Again, I really appreciate their willingness to pin images that are truly helpful to followers, not just pins of the Pottery Barn catalog.

(Side Note: Anthropologie, why aren’t you more present on Pinterest?  I assumed you’d have some amazing boards, but there’s just one, with a few pins curated by followers right now.  Coming soon, perhaps?)

And the not-so-obvious brands on Pinterest:

Space Weather from The Weather Channel

National Guard  I was expecting to see pins of military equipment and gear.  Instead, the National Guard boards focus on families and the work that the National Guard is doing here and around the world.  These boards expose the National Guard to some groups of people that would normally have no idea what they do, where they are working, etc.  A great reminder of the work that our military is doing and how it impacts us and their families.

Humane Society of New York  I love seeing how this non-profit is leveraging Pinterest to further it’s mission.  Naturally, there are boards featuring the pets that need to be adopted.  What’s even more compelling are the boards of happily adopted pets, a board dedicated to the needs of the organization (think items like cat litter and dog food), and fun boards featuring pet photography and cool pet abodes.

These boards first came to my attention because instead of the usual “pet-in-cage” blurry adoption snapshots, many of the pictures of these adoptable animals are professionally captured, each animal posed and wearing a bow-tie, necklace, or some other little accessory.  Since I’m a sucker for cute animals (and especially cute animals in costume), what this group was doing caught my eye.

The Weather Channel

Okay, I have to admit that I was kind of skeptical about how much interest I would actually have in following Weather Channel boards.  But honestly, they’ve gotten creative.  Besides boards called ‘Winter” and “Spring”, there is a board dedicated to Cold Weather Gear, Weather Gadgets, Teaching the Weather, and Funny Weather Channelisms.  Because the weather can be funny, really!  And my favorite is of course Space Weather.  Fascinating!

The key here is that they’re letting some personality show through.  The weather can be a pretty stale and boring topic, but these boards make The Weather Channel human.

Kelly Lieberman has been compiling a list of the brands on Pinterest (using a Pinterest board, naturally).

So, the takeaway here is: brands should use Pinterest not just to showcase their products, but to share images and videos that are important to their customer’s lifestyle.  That means that pins should be curated from all kinds of places, not just the brand’s own website.  Even if it means you’re pinning from Gimbel’s.

What other compelling ways do you see brands using Pinterest?  Let’s discuss in the comments.

I think there are some lessons content marketers can learn from The Golden Girls. Why? Think about the things that make up quality content marketing.

Attributes of Quality Content Marketing

• It entertains
• It engages
• It tells stories to provide connections
• It is high quality
• It is valuable
• It is relevant

Every one of those attributes (and more) exists in The Golden Girls.  You might think I’m biased, and maybe I am just a bit, but take a look at each of the characters and you too will see the lessons come to life.

Learning from the Golden Girls

Dorothy Zbornak

When I think of Dorothy (my favorite GG), her sense of humor stands out.  Snappy comebacks and sarcastic wit were Dorothy’s best attributes.

The  Dorothy Lesson

Don’t be afraid to let your sense of humor come through in your content. You have a story to tell.  Inject some humor into your content and show people you’re human.

Rose in mid-story

Rose Nylund

Storytelling.  As soon as you hear ‘Back in St. Olaf…’, you know Rose is about to launch into one of her stories.  Sure, the other Girls always rolled their eyes during a Rose story, but you can’t deny that they were memorable.  And entertaining, to say the least.

The Rose Lesson

Can you share a bit about the people behind-the-scenes in your company?  Is there a compelling tale about how your company got started?  Find those interesting stories to tell.

Side Note: Betty White is such a good model for longetivity.  She has remained relevant and beloved for decades.

Blanche Deveraux

She’s the resident exhibitionist.  Blanche doesn’t hold back.  In fact, she’s loud and proud about who she is and her life choices.

The Blanche Lesson

Don’t hold back.  Be proud of who you are and celebrate what your company does well.  Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn.  And share what makes you different with your customers and provide a reason to buy from you instead of the competition.

Sophia Petrillo

Sophia doesn’t mince words, ever.  According to the storyline, she lost her internal ‘filter’ or censor after suffering a stroke.  She doesn’t use a lot of flowery words or beat around the bush.  She’s pithy and to the point.

Sophia - Tellin' it like it is

The Sophia Lesson

The people reading your web content have a lot of other stuff competing for their attention, online and offline.  Don’t waste their time or your space with extra words that aren’t needed.  Make it easy for readers to scan your post and quickly pick out the takeaways.

Sophia illustrates the ridiculousness of unnecessary words, in one my most favorite show clips, ever.

Stanley Zbornak

Dorothy’s ex-husband Stan was nothing if not persistent.  He was constantly trying to be part of the Girls’ lives, and he was always present in some way.

The Stanley Lesson

When you’re just starting to blog, and make use of social media outlets you might not get much traction at first.  But don’t become discouraged.  Remain committed to creating relevant and engaging content that is useful to your customers.

The Golden Girls is a show that’s memorable because its stories are evergreen and transcend any particular time period.  It’s a show that entertains while remaining relevant years after it first aired.

What else can the Golden Girls teach us about good content?

Excited as I was to get started, there were going to be some challenges. We only had a few hours to do the shoot. Knowing it’s best to resolve potential issues before the shutter is released, the clock was not in my favor. A few minutes of pre-click work can save an hour or two of Photoshop editing.

Before: The Challenges

Location was a challenge. Most Bridge Brew Works beers are only available on tap so we had to shoot them at the brewery. Unfortunately, shooting at the brewery limits our control of the light. We were at the mercy of the existing settings.

Wrangling the Light

The aluminum-colored coolers, stainless steel fermenters and mash tun are beautiful in their reflective shell.  However, they bounce powerful light photons at the shiny surface of pint glasses and bottles.

The darker the beer, the more pronounced the reflection. Attempts to diffuse the reflections were minimal. Their contrasting grey and white values embedded themselves deep within the chocolate bottles and organic hues of the brews.

After: The Finished Product

A Myriad of Reflections 

The ceiling of the brewery features skylights. Sunlight may keep the brewers happy while they are crafting beer, but can create unmerciful reflections. Ultimately they distract from the subject, the beer itself. The rich, all-natural color of beer demands center stage in the photo.

Ambient light illuminated surrounding objects. Some of those objects were people, myself included.  Even the piece of cardboard I held to block a strong light became a reflection itself!

Future of Beertography

From this experience I learned a valuable lesson: Never underestimate the powerful effect of reflected light. To capture the true character of the subject, take every step available to control as much light as possible. The ideal situation is to construct a portable, light-controlling, box-studio. One that is inexpensive to build and maintain, but is also easily transportable.

One thing’s for sure, I am looking forward to the next beertography session. Stay tuned for further updates as the saga continues….

While it’s a game normally reserved for absurd, albeit entertaining, commercials that try to overcome tasteless beer with ads, there is an opportunity for craft brewers to build connections.

The Double Whammy
As a craft brewer, if you could reach more women with your product, wouldn’t you make the effort? Women play a growing and important role for craft brewers. They are savvy, knowledgeable, embracing craft beer, and represent a huge portion of users of one of the newest and hottest social networks. Pinterest.

Haven’t heard of Pinterest? There is lots of talk about how and why to use Pinterest floating around on blogs, including several great sets of tips on using Pinterest from Sarah.

As the Super Bowl nears, it’s a great time to take advantage of Pinterest and start connecting with folks, including a great number of women, that are interested in cooking, craft beer and cooking with craft beer.

Create a Tailgating or Craft Beer Recipes Pin Board
Why call the board ‘tailgating’ or ‘recipes’ and not Super Bowl or “The Big Game”?

Simple. Longevity.

By using a more general name, the pin board will provide evergreen content and utility no matter if it’s college football, pro sports, or anything else that involves pre-game consumption of great food and great beer.

What to Do? Share
It’s dead simple. Login (if you need an invite, details are below) and share photos of great food and great ideas, all with a common thread of great beer. Recipes and creative ideas, coupled with a high quality photos, will help you generate likes, re-pins, and provide an opportunity to create connections.

What to Do? Contest
Great Lakes Brewing Company is running a contest where entrants share a photo of themselves with a Great Lakes brew. It’s a great, creative idea!

Something similar could be done, quickly and easily, but with a twist to utilize Pinterest.

Land’s End recently ran a photo contest on Pinterest, which should give you some ideas on running your own. Entrants could pin a photo of themselves, or pin a photo of their favorite beer from your website (easy way to generate some links!).

No matter what route you may choose, Pinterest provides craft brewers a great opportunity to create connections.

Need an Invite?
While more there are more than 4 million Pinterest users, the network is still not “Open” and an invite is required. Need an invite? Leave a comment below and I’ll send you one!

Here are the three apps that I couldn’t go a day without.

Twitter

There are a ton of Twitter apps for the iOS platform. A simple search for “Twitter” in iTunes can return more results than anyone wants to dig through. But, with the release of iOS5, Apple simplified this process to some degree. Twitter is built right into iOS5 so that almost anything can be shared via Twitter without having to actually open a Twitter client. This is all well and good, but that’s only half of the point of Twitter. How do you see things that other people have shared?

There is no reason, in my opinion, to look further than the official Twitter client. Now that Twitter has partnered with Apple, you can download the official Twitter client right from your settings screen. But, what makes this app so great?

Thanks to a recent redesign, the new Twitter app looks better than it ever has. The navigation is clear and concise, and the interface makes great use of texture.

The interface makes it easy to do the tasks that Twitter is intended for: connecting with other people. You can see your recent follows, discover trending topics, and hop in and out of search and streams with great ease.

I haven’t found anything missing functionality yet. In the past, I’ve run into issues with other clients that prevented me from doing certain things. This isn’t the case with the official Twitter client. I can save searches, switch between multiple accounts and even edit my own information.

iBooks

Before I got my iPhone, I only really enjoyed reading on my iPad. I still have several “old-school” books, and they are no less valuable to me, but reading on a touchscreen really feels more natural to me.

Be that as it may, the iPhone’s screen is quite a bit smaller than the size of your average book, so I was a little leery when a friend recommended that I try reading on my phone. But, the result was amazing. I’m not sure what the exact cause is, but for me and several people that I know, there has been a noticeable difference in reading speed. A book that used to take a week or two can now be finished in a weekend.

That’s not all though. If I have a book on my iPhone, and the same book on my iPad, my bookmarks will wirelessly sync so that I can set one down, and pick up where I left off on the other. Not to mention the recent release of iBooks 2, which makes the experience even more powerful.

Find My iPhone 

While I might not use Find My iPhone every day, there is not a day that I would go without it on all of my devices. It is a free service offered by Apple that makes it possible to track the location of any of your Apple products (even computers) as long as they are on and connected to the internet.

Of course, you have to register that device, but that is a small price to pay to have free tracking of your device to put your mind at ease. Not only can you locate your device remotely, but you can also play a sound to help find it in your house or car, send a message to it to offer the person who found it a reward or even lock it and wipe it clean of sensitive data.

Once you’ve registered, you can go to the iCloud website, or open the Find My iPhone app on your iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone, and see a list of your devices and their current status (Location Available, Offline, No Location Available, etc.).

What three apps are your ‘must-haves’?  Tell us in the comments.

Steve Jobs said in his biography that the next market he wanted to disrupt was that of textbooks, and Apple has done just that. Apple has made it dead simple to create and share content in the form of completely interactive books. But what do these tools mean for us, outside of the education spectrum?

iBooks 2

iBooks 2 is a free download for all iPads. It gives you the ability to buy and read textbooks right on your device. The first time someone opens the App Store on their iPad, they are always prompted to download iBooks, so most people have it installed and will receive notification that the update is available. With this in mind, it’s safe to assume that the majority of people with iPads will have this update and will be able to take full advantage of this new interactivity, including (but not limited to):

• Interactive Video and Text
• Beautiful graphics
• Audio and video clips
• Portability from iWork and Microsoft Office
• “Review” functionality

iBooks Author 

iBooks Author is available to all Mac users with access to Mac App Store at no charge (EDIT: A commenter pointed out that iBooks Author is actually only available to Mac App Store users running OSX 10.7, though some users have managed to circumvent this restriction). Not only is it free, it’s 100% drag-and-drop, with built-in templates and the ability to add additional functionality using HTML5 and Javascript. Using the iBooks Author, it would be no problem for a company to make things like:

• Beautiful coffee table picture books
• Digital cookbooks
• Interactive brochures
• Interactive menus

iBooks 2 is a new platform that will make it super easy for companies to take their content and make it interactive in a way that would not have been possible before.  When it comes to content marketing, iBooks 2 is a powerful new tool that companies can use to tell stories and engage with customers.

How will you be using iBooks 2?

• Pinterest allows you to upload a photo or video from your computer or mobile phone.  If you are doing this, be sure to include a website address in the description, along with appropriate descriptor words.  Later, when you have access to the web version of Pinterest, review all of your mobile pins and add a web address to the pin link option.
  

  Pins of All Kinds

• I use both the Pinterest bookmarklet and a Chrome Extension called Pinterest Right-Click that allows me to right click on any photo and pin it.  It will save you the step of having to pick the thing you wanted to pin out of a lineup of photos, which is what you do when you use the bookmarklet.  With the right-click extention, you’re pinning directly from the picture you want to grab.

• If your goal is to gain interaction around repins and likes (which it should be, at least if you are a company or brand using Pinterest), be certain to describe your pins smartly and appropriately in the comments section.  Let’s say you’re pinning an image of a DIY project you want to try.  Instead of labeling it ‘diy’ or ‘to do’, instead, call the pin something like ‘velvet ribbon wreath’ or ‘vintage wedding invitations’.  Be specific.

• Brands using Pinterest, take note.  Your website address will show up in the top right-hand corner of the pin if you’re grabbing the photo or video directly from your site.  If you are uploading photos directly from your computer, be sure to edit the pin to include the link URL.
  

  Add a price to your pin

• Give your boards a description when creating them for easy searchability.  This will also give potential followers a quick overview of what they can expect from the board before scrolling aimlessly through pins.

• If you are a company or business pinning one of your own products, you can include a price in the description.  That price will show up as a little banner across the top left corner of the pin.  All you have to do is include the ‘$’ sign in the description.  For example, type in “Vintage Flower Brooch, $45.00″.  Including the currency sign will automatically create the price banner.

• Another tip for businesses and brands.  You can search for all of the pins that others have grabbed directly from your site.  Type in the following URL: www.pinterest/source/_______.  In the blank, include your web address.  So, for example, www.pinterest.com/source/piesandpints.net will yield all of the pins that have come directly from the Pies and Pints URL.

What other helpful tips and tricks have you discovered in Pinterest?

As a homebrewer and lover of craft beer, I find discovering and making new beers an adventure.  As a marketer, I think there is a lot we can learn from craft brewers.

Now, there are many things that craft brewers could do better with their digital marketing; however, I wanted to flip the script.

Here are some of the things that I think marketers could learn from craft brewers.

It’s Good to Be Different
Craft brewers aren’t interested in pleasing everyone, and you shouldn’t be either.  While many craft breweries make great efforts to create introduction or “cross over” beers for those new to drinking craft, many also make beers that will only appeal to a select few.  They are ok with that.  In fact, many relish the fact that not all of their beer appeals to everyone.  In marketing, if you are trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.

You Need a Plan
While most craft beers are a simple combination of malted grain, hops, water and yeast, great planning goes into formulating a beer recipe.  If you start brewing a batch of beer with no goals or plans for things like beer color or alcohol content, you’re working blind.  Craft brewers know the style of beer they want to end up with and the steps needed to get there because they have a plan. Marketing without a plan and goals can never be successful.

You Need to Measure, Then Measure More
To me, craft brewers are part chemist and part scientist.  The quality and consistency of their end product requires great care for measurement. Without measuring throughout the entire process, craft brewers wouldn’t know if their work was successful and their goals were being met until the very end of the process.  And that’s when it’s too late to do anything about it.  As marketers, we need to measure early and often, just like craft brewers.

Patience is Required
Good things come to those who wait.  Not a new concept.  But good marketing, just like good beer, takes patience to become evident.  Our friends at Bridge Brew Works just released a new Belgian Blonde Ale that they brewed quite some time ago.  In fact, they aged the beer in bottle over a year before its release!  Could they have released it sooner? Yup… and it would have still been good; however, not nearly as good as it is after a year in the bottle.  Remarkable marketing is never instant.  Patience is key.

You Get Out of It What You Put Into It
With craft beer, the quality of your ingredients is incredibly important.  Everything from the water and quality of hops and yeast  can have an impact on the finished product.

Many industrial beers use cheap adjuncts like high fructose corn syrup and rice.  You won’t find those things in honest craft beer.  Side-by-side tasting will show the proof is in the pudding.  You want a quality outcome?  Begin with quality ingredients.

There Are Easy Ways and There Are Right Ways
I enjoy home brewing.  That doesn’t make me a quality brewer.  One of the first craft beers I ever tasted, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, is still a favorite.  It is a craft beer classic that has enjoyed longevity due to the effort put into brewing it and providing consistent quality.  Sierra Nevada does it the right way.

I could easily purchase a homebrew kit to make my own Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  Theoretically, I could produce the same beer, using the same ingredients, using my own home brewing equipment.  But truthfully, I don’t have the knowledge, the patience, the experience or access to the highest quality ingredients like Sierra Nevada.

Easy?  Or right?  Your choice.

You Need the Right Tools & You Need to Know How to Use Them
Quality marketing and beer require quality tools and their knowledgeable use.  When it comes to craft brewers and their need to brew great beer repeatedly and consistently, the importance of the right tools becomes vastly more evident.

It is one thing to make something of quality, once.  It is something else entirely to replicate success.  Research, training and knowledge of the tools of the trade are crucial to the success of a craft brewery.  The same goes for marketers.

Learn From Your Mistakes
There is one thing everyone in this world can be guaranteed of – making a mistake.  In both craft beer and marketing, learning from your mistakes is crucial to success. If a craft brewer has to dump an entire batch of beer, you can rest assured they will dutifully hunt down the source of the problem and learn from it.  Was it a bad strain of yeast? Temperature problems? In marketing, if you aren’t learning from your mistakes, you are walking a fine and dangerous line. Know you will make a mistake at some point, and be prepared to learn.

Do any of these things resonate with you?  What would you add to the list of things marketers could learn from the craft beer industry?

Apple is one of the most consumer experience-oriented companies that has ever existed. That doesn’t make their products perfect, by any means. It just shows where their interests lie. It has been said that Apple spends as much time designing product packages as they do designing the products that go inside of them.

Clearly, there is a lot to be said for the quality of one’s product packaging. So, for the sake of discussion, let’s assume that you have mastered the art of product package “experience design.” You are the best of the best. Your boxes are the stuff of fiction among lesser retailers.

This is all well and good, but what else could you be doing with your packaging? How can you expand this experience? Where is the envelope and how can you continue to push it? How can you take your the mind-blowing, face-melting packaging experience and move it into the digital space?

The answer is QR codes.

Courtesy of HighEdWebTech.com

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “You know who loves QR codes? Agencies. You know who hates QR codes? People.” We’ve all heard it. But, we’re not talking about those crappy QR codes that you see in Wired. We’re talking about QR codes that provide an experience worthy of being associated with your insanely great product packaging.

Let’s recap.

1. Your packaging kicks ass.
2. You need to expand that kick ass packaging experience into the digital space.
3. QR codes provide an awesome way to connect some digital media to your kick ass packaging.

So how can we use QR codes to provide a stellar packaging experience?  Read on.

Additional Information

People like knowing things, especially about stuff that they’re spending money on. Using a QR code to provide additional information about your product is a great way to free up space on the package. The QR code can share nutritional facts, reviews, or even some sort of video or backstory about you or your product. Keep in mind that this content can be changed at any time. This way, you can keep using the same package design but still have fresh new content.

Social Sharing

Social media is pretty big deal. Did you know that as of September 2011, one in every nine people on the planet is on Facebook? So, how can you take your product out of its package and into the social space?

Using a QR code, you can create a landing page that will enable people to tweet about the product, share it on Facebook and even connect with your brand itself. It is important not to pigeon-hole this technique with a particular social network though, as you will immediately alienate anyone who doesn’t use it.

Mobile Commerce

The key concept of business is exchanging a product or service for currency. That’s it. The goal of every business owner is to sell more of their product. With a QR code, you can take your customer directly to a page that will enable them to sign up for a paid subscription, order more of a product, or even purchase your product as a gift and have it sent to someone else. People have deep, emotional connections to their mobile devices, and with online shopping in the mobile space, that connection can be leveraged for your benefit.

Recipes

Use recipes to share content in a number of different ways. “Make this at home!”.  Share a recipe with a QR code and list the other ingredients that people should pick up in addition to your product.  Include social sharing buttons so they can let friends know that they’re making your recipe.

Or make recommendations for other products in your line or recipes that people might enjoy.  ” If you like this, you’re going to love (insert name of delicious dish here).” Recipes get the consumer involved with your product and make them part of the experience. Info can be shared using landing pages, apps or even videos uploaded to services like Youtube.

Contests

When asked why they would scan a QR code, 64% of people said that they would do it to be entered into a contest or sweepstakes. This is a great chance to get your product in front of some more people and keep them using it and talking about it. You could direct the customer to a landing page with a form to get their information, and use it to enter them into a random drawing for some great prize.

These are just five great ways to use QR codes? Have you seen more? Please share in the comments!

Truth be told, if I never had to blog again, I’d be okay with that.  I’m betting several of you are nodding your head.  Some of you, at the mere thought of never blogging again, are playing an air-guitar and yelling, “Hell Yeah!”.

In reality, I know I need to blog.  So do you.

Why?  Because blogging is important to building our businesses. That’s been covered ad nauseum, and you know the drill.

The bottom line: blogging helps with all sorts of things in the digital marketing world, especially when tied to metrics that help us know how our businesses are doing.

It’s often that I tell myself I need to do better at blogging, that I need to become more consistent. The thing is, despite knowing I need to be a better blogger, I’m just not very good at it.  My guess is if you have read this far, you aren’t either and are looking for help.  Maybe we need to start a blogging support group?  Seriously.

It’s a new year and a great time to make some changes.  It would be easy to simply say, “I’m going to be a better blogger in 2012”, which I feel is the digital equivalent of the proverbial “I’m going to exercise more and lose weight”.

In my experience, the typical life-cycle of a resolution like that begins with general push of activity and some radical changes.  Unfortunately, there never seems to be much hope of sustainability, and generally speaking, there seems to be a real lack of understanding of what put us in the position to need these types of resolutions to begin with.

So, with that in mind. I resolve not to resolve to be a better blogger.

I know.  Sounds like some kind of hipster-like bullshit, but it’s the truth.

Instead, I resolve to understand the things that have kept me from blogging in the way that I’d like.

I challenge you to do the same.  Instead of simply making a resolution to become a better blogger, or whatever you need to work on, resolve to gain an understanding of the influences that are causing the problem to begin with. For example, I need to schedule time during the week to sit down and just write. Not edit as I write, but simply write.

More simply put, if you have to resolve to lose weight, it’s likely a result of poor eating habits, or lack of exercise.  I know, I’ve been there myself.  The same can be said with blogging or just participating in your digital marketing in general.

If you have to resolve to improve, there is a reason.  What is it?