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Imagine the excitement of the California Gold Rush in the 1850's -- the thrill of the hunt to find valuable gold just waiting for them. The same can be said of your online business. Clients come to me because they are struggling to find the valuable gold assets hidden in their businesses in the form of stories.

What most of these clients don't realize at the outset, is that they don't have to make-up these business stories! They are all around them in their business conversations, presentations and customer interactions -- just waiting to be found.

These business stories can be turned into valuable information products, videos, webinars and so much more. You just need to mine your content like the prospectors who found gold. It was easy to prospect once they got the hang of it. I'm sure you'll find that too, once you know how to recognize business stories.

Here are some tips on finding your valuable gold nuggets:

1. Listen to what you talk to your vendors about every day. What are you telling them you need from them? What do they need from you? Value can be found in combing this content.

2. Listen to customer service calls for success stories and ways to do better. Tell those stories and make sure your staff knows about them.

3. Interact with customers and listen for the metaphors they use about your business. Make sure to notice which metaphors your staff uses to tell your business stories.

4. Write down the story about how you started your business or got involved with the product or service. Tell it to your trusted colleagues and see if they feel inspired or bored.

5. Always frame your stories using your products or services as the solution to your customer's needs in the form of an inspiring story.

Once you start noticing stories and telling them, you'll find that they become a valuable part of your marketing.

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When you hear about yet another social network it's possible that somewhere inside your head you will hear a screaming sound. Don't be alarmed. This time it's Pinterest and everything is going to be ok.

Why? Because you will 'get' Pinterest very quickly. In fact, the site just hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors and they're still in beta. What does this tell us? It confirms what we know about the brain. The brain makes sense of the world through visual processing-- no great thought required, so we love pictures!

But what does this mean for your marketing -- a lot. Pinterest ties up all the things you like about social networking, the sharing, the display of your interests, the ability to find like-minded people, but without all the technical hassles.

Here are some things to consider when you think about marketing on Pinterest:

1. It's very easy to set up: No heavy lifting here. Set yourself up and create some boards ripe for pinning. Give them interesting names so people will seek them out.

2. It let's you link to something: The graphic you pin has a link along with it. If it's someone else's link it is automatically created. If it's from your site, you can put the URL you want. That's marketing 101-send them to content rich areas. Think about it, just like Twitter or Facebook, they can go to YOUR link. (Hint: This is where the traffic angle comes in.)

3. It shows your stuff off via your best graphics: If you have good looking products, this is a no-brainer.

4. You can put prices on things: If you put a dollar sign ($) in the description, a price banner will appear in the left corner of your graphic. It will then go into the "Gifts" section and be searchable by price.

5. People can get to know what you're about: This is the fun part. Just display what you love.

Try it! You'll find me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/diamondsf

If you need an invitation, put a comment below and I'll send you one.

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If you're a marketer or online business owner, you know how hard it is to tell an engaging story about your brand or product. Not only do you need to provoke an emotion, but you need to educate and sell at the same time. If you want to understand this process, watch this wonderful video created by Robert Rose on how to do it well.

Hollywood Storytelling Video by Robert Rose

If you've been online for any length of time, you've struggled with the question of how much time to spend on social platforms.  You weigh the pros and cons and perhaps miss the central point-- sharing information of any kind potentially adds to the value of the Web as a whole.

If your expertise is freely shared by posting something interesting you have made a contribution.  If you think of it that way, perhaps you'll waste less time on trivia.  Or you won't.  Either way consider it as your effort to teach something to others.

If you use Dragon Naturally Speaking, check out the new edition of Dragon for Dummies

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Speak up and master the latest version of Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking! Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a speech recognition program that lets users dictate into any Windows application, allowing you to access documents, write e-mails, and even update Facebook using only your voice.

If you’re a leader whose business has an online component, you’d probably like to find some guidelines that make it easier to develop and sustain an online marketing strategy. There are lots of conflicting ideas swirling out there about what to do online to maintain a competitive advantage and increase value. If you followed many of them, you’d be spinning your wheels with no revenue in sight. 

As someone whose has worked online since 1994, I’ve watched the marketing “shiny object” change from Web site to newsletter to blog to social media network. And on it goes. I know that getting locked into a tactic with no clear strategy in sight is a common mistake.  It does nothing to increase your value.

If you’re uneasy around the topic of social media strategies, you’re not alone. Because you’re not down in the trenches tweeting and posting, you probably don’t have the “hands-on” feel you have for other areas of marketing. A competitive advantage seems unatainable.

If you attempt to delegate, employees suggest all manner of tactics to engage customers. You’ve heard that you need to engage with Twitter and Facebook, study ongoing analytics, present sparkling content, and co-develop with customers. Great advice. But without the strategy behind it, your campaigns are destined to fail. Like every other area of business, you need to create the strategy first and make sure it flows down to everyone in your organization. 

In formulating an online strategy, here are three questions to consider: 

Value.   Do your employees know the real value consumers place on your products and services?   If you don’t develop and constantly hone that message, your employees can’t communicate it in their social media efforts. In turn, all the ratings and comments that show up about your company will not engender the “word of mouth” referral power they could. If your customers aren’t selling for you, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful weapons you have today.

Intellectual property (IP).   Are you encouraging your employees to mine the intellectual property hidden inside your business to create information products and services?   I’m not referring to the patents or formulas your company owns. The Intellectual property in companies today can be found in their vast stores of information. The key is to evaluate that information based on enhancement of the customer’s life. Think broadly. Consumers today are hungry for quality information that solves problems. Can your staff take that information and create videos, e-books, and other downloadable properties with that in mind? 

Competitive advantage.   Do your employees understand who your real competitors are?   I’m often surprised when I work on a competitive advantage with my clients that they overlook several real online competitors. It’s a mistake to focus on only those who sell your exact product/service in exactly the way you do. The Web provides the opportunity for your customers to pick and choose from a variety of options. For example, if you sell sales training courses, your competitors are online video portals, coaches (both in-person and online), downloadable audio courses, etc. Make sure your staff has looked at all the possibilities.

One more note—there are many visual thinking tools (like mind mapping) that your team can use right now to gather ideas from all internal disciplines to enhance your competitive advantage. Consider using these techniques to get ideas from programmers and marketers alike. In today’s marketplace, you can’t afford to overlook a great idea. Your value depends on it.

Here's a post I did in 2006 that I wanted to reprise. Try it:

Mind Maps are not a new invention, they have been used for over 30 years.  Tony Buzan is credited with developing the process. With the advent of software that makes it easy to create and share, mind maps have experienced a resurgence.  I use them for everything, planning clients' website redesigns, project management, the works.   

Here is a link to a mindmap I created with a colleague to help plan a teleseminar.  The great thing about mind maps is that they show you the big picture and the details at the same time.  You'll note that you can see how all the pieces fit together and how revenue will be generated.  They are easy to do and a paper and pencil works too.    Try it and let me know how you used it to help you reach your business goals.

Technorati tags: teleseminar mind+map

One of the benefits of working online for a long time is that you can see patterns.  No matter what online selling tactic is out there, it was met with fear, experimentation, acceptance and then a final declaration of its death (although its rarely dead.)

The one thing you can count on when selling is that the emotions never change.  I can send you an email, a tweet, snail mail or a bygone telegram, but without connecting with your emotions, it will be DOA.  If I don't grab your attention or make you stop to explore, I've wasted your time and mine.  

This is just a reminder to think less about the tactics and more about the message.

I'm excited to announce that we are launching the "Savvy Executive Institute for Digital Strategy.  Its designed to help online business owners find the online training and guidance they need to grow a profitable business.  No fluff, no hype.

If you are looking for a powerful combination of learning and doing, then Institute membership is right for you. We offer a 12 month membership program that is structured to give you maximum value. 

Each month you receive a new module on your personal dashboard. The multimedia training is sequenced so that each module builds on the next.  You won’t suffer overwhelm because you can’t get ahead of yourself or get stuck.  New material is there when you need it.

We put our program together using the following 7 core principles:

1. Curriculum: Our multimedia curriculum is based on the Hidden Profit System developed by our founder Stephanie Diamond who has had a long and successful career helping online business owners succeed.Ten modules are delivered over a 12 month membership period. The modules contain all the action oriented materials you need to get your business growing.

2. Success Journaling: At the Institute we believe that keeping a business journal is a strong success indicator. The journal content will be collected by you over the membership year as we go through the curriculum and will then be published for you as a 6×9 perfect bound journal by our publishing partner Vervante. It can include up to 200 pages of your notes, maps, templates, details of campaigns and anything else you want to document. You’ll be able to look back over the year and see conclusively what progress you’ve made and where you can improve. If you can learn to write your own prescription for success, you’ll be a true leader.

3. Visual thinking: In the 21st century, visual thinking is key to working online. We use mind maps, charts, templates, images and anything that will help make the material easier to understand and implement. Stephanie Diamond has written the recently published “Prezi for Dummies” book from Wiley. It deals with the presentation software Prezi that is used as a digital story-telling tool. All of these techniques will be part of the learning platform.

4. Asking the right questions: Asking the right questions is critical to helping your business grow fast. As part of your membership you will be able to ask questions at our live monthly Q&A calls. You are encouraged to attend the calls live and perhaps volunteer for a ‘hot seat’ where we discuss and suggest solutions to your most pressing problems.

5. Tools to make it easier: We don’t hesitate to use every tool we can find to make your work easier. We would rather you start with a template then have to create anything from scratch. We believe this makes for a more rounded experience.

6. Expert advisors: Our hand-picked group of advisors will share what they know about growing a business online. Their experience brings an added depth to the curriculum in the form of interviews and articles.

7. Content: In addition to the articles, free tips and other materials we also have a Special Reports Library open only to members. Here you’ll find tactical information on all the most important subjects like social media, blogging, etc.

If all of this sounds right for you, jump over to our Membership page and see what we're offering. Hope we’ll see you on the inside.

If your new year has started off with the same confusion and lack of productivity as last year, then you need to check out Effortless Productivity TV !  It's a new web TV show with Dr. Brad Semp of Cashmaps.com fame.

Dr. Brad focuses on helping you optimize your business systems and make real progress.  Also, don't forget to sign up for his blog for great tips and new ideas.  

P.S. Dr. Brad will be one of the expert advisors at the Savvy Executive Institute for Digital Strategy launching in February, so you know I think he's really good at what he does.