April 29, 2009
At some point in time, you have probably been asked to provide some type of reference for the work you have done. It could be on an individual level, or on a company level. References are essentially testimonials that describe your character, the work you do, or the services your company provides. Very powerful testimonials can be a key decision maker when you are being evaluated as an individual or company. At Fusework Studios, we decided to put together the below video to showcase our client testimonials. Let me know what you think!
Fusework Studios Testimonial Demo from Fusework Studios on Vimeo.
Leave a Comment » | 
fusework studios, internet marketing | Tagged: Business, Business and Economy, Decision making, fusework studios, Testimonial, video references, video testimonials | 
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Posted by derekmcclain
April 28, 2009
Today an email was sent to our staff at Fusework Studios which explained The Law of The Garbage Truck. This was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. I will admit when I first received the email I was wondering what exactly this email was going to be. I was pleasantly surprised by an email with a lot of meaning that extends far beyond the garbage truck analogy.
I did a little bit of research on The Law of The Garbage Truck and came to find that this is copyrighted by David J. Pollay. Below is a segment from David’s blog which explains The Law of The Garbage Truck. Check it out and take The No Garbage Trucks! pledge. 
I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, the car skidded, the tires squealed, and at the very last moment our car stopped just one inch from the other car’s back-end.
I couldn’t believe it. But then I couldn’t believe what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. How do I know? Ask any New Yorker, some words in New York come with a special face. And he even threw in a one finger salute! I couldn’t believe it!
But then here’s what really blew me away. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, “Why did you just do that!? This guy could have killed us!” And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage TruckTM.” He said:
“Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they look for a place to dump it. And if you let them, they’ll dump it on you. So when someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Believe me. You’ll be happier.”
So I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the street? It was then that I said, “I don’t want their garbage and I’m not going to spread it anymore.”
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: david j pollay, law of garbage truck pledge, The Law of The Garbage Truck | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 28, 2009
Do you currently have a schedule for updating your blog? How are you coming up with new ideas and topics for blog posts? These were just a couple of questions asked on Day #11 of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. The action item was to come up with 10 blog post ideas and this made me start wondering how other people go about updating their blogs on a regular basis.
In general, I typically come up with blog post ideas throughout the day and store them “in my head.” By the time I am ready to publish a new post (I typically update my blog at night) it can be difficult to remember the great blog post I had drafted in my head earlier in the day. I think I am going to start carrying around a small notepad to help keep a written record of these great ideas I have. Another idea would be to simply start a draft each time you have an idea if you are a near a computer. This way you would have several topics loaded up and ready to go. How do you come up with your blog post ideas? Has anyone tried the notepad idea?
Another blogging discipline idea that came up during an Agency Training Seminar with Compendium Blogware which I attended as a representative of Fusework Studios was to develope a schedule for maintaining your blog. For example: Monday’s post would be about starting the week off and things you had going on that week, Friday’s post would be about a client success story that happened during the week, etc. In theory this sounds like an idea worth trying. Especially if you are a business with several bloggers on staff.
Any other ideas out there?
1 Comment | Blogging | Tagged: blog ideas, blog posts, blog schedule, Blogging, Blogging Challenge | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 22, 2009
Seth Godin’s blog is phenomenal. It is a requirement for all of us at Fusework Studios to be subscribers of his blog. A requirement I rather enjoy. 
Reading Seth’s blog is a great way to start your day. I had a conversation with a fellow Tweeter about how reading his daily post is almost the equivalent to a cup of coffee. Each post typically provides a unique insight to a common problem or mistake people make in the marketing world. It makes you think – which can be hard to do early in the morning. More often than not, including 5 minutes to read Seth’s Blog in your day, each and every day (he has posted over 3,000 blog posts in a row now) will result in a feeling of motivation to go out and take on whatever that day may present you with. I strongly encourage you to make this part of your daily routine.
While I obviously cannot make it a requirement for you. I can guarantee you will enjoy.
Get started with today’s post – Whether or which
Leave a Comment » | Blogging, Seth Godin | Tagged: Blogging, Seth Godin, seths blog | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 20, 2009
ProBlogger’s Day #10 assignment was all about staying in the loop by setting up alerts. It can be very difficult to keep up with everything going on in your industry or even the people talking about your brand online. One great way to stay up to date is by setting up alerts. Setting up alerts will allow you to keep up with breaking news in your niche, help generate blog post ideas and most importantly monitor your reputation online – just to name a few. Here are two tools that ProBlogger recommends:
The two most common alerts that ProBlogger recommends setting up are (definitions from ProBlogger):
1. Industry Words – these are words relevant to your blog’s niche. For example if you blog about the wedding industry you might like to monitor words like ‘wedding dress’. If you blog about Britney Spears – you’ll want to be watching for any use of her name. The key is to find keywords that highlight when stories are breaking about your industry but ones that don’t overwhelm you with results.
2. Vanity Alerts – these are keywords that are specifically relevant to you. They include your personal name, your blog’s name, company name, brand names and even URLs.
So get your alerts set up today and start monitoring your brand and your niche a bit closer!
Leave a Comment » | Blogging | Tagged: blog alerts, google alerts, industry words, monitter twitter alerts, problogger, vanity alerts | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 13, 2009
Here we are on Day #8 of the ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Today’s task is to link to older blog posts within your own blog. This task really forces you to go back through and look at your blog to see just how far you have come. It can be very rewarding experience and also spark new ideas for future blog posts. The SEO benefits, usefulness to readers, and increased page views are also a great set of reasons to frequently implement this interlinking practice.
My very first blog post was an iPod Nano review back on October 15th, 2008. This is when I was very new to the blogging scene and unsure on how to begin. So why not start with a product review on my new iPod?
My blog post about Mike’s Carwash customer service still continues to be my most popular blog post of all time. I was very surprised with the number of views and comments that this post received. This is when I really became encouraged to continue blogging.
And of course my Blackberry Storm month review post in response to a reader’s question. Apparently I made the decision to become the “guinea pig” for several people when purchasing my Blackberry Storm. When I began posting about this phone, my posts received a lot of interested. I found a small niche as an “expert” with this particular device. If you ever have a question about the Blackberry Storm – just ask!
So there you have it. These are some of my favorite posts from the archives of D-Mac’s Blog. Hope you enjoy!
Leave a Comment » | blackberry, Blogging | Tagged: blackberry storm month review, derek mcclain, dmacs blog, ipod, ipod nano review, mikes car wash, problogger, problogger challenge | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 13, 2009
Day #7 of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Challenge was all about showing the love…the link love that is! Linking to another blogger or Web site is a great way to begin building a great link exchanging relationship. The philosophy is simple – Giver’s Gain. So without further adue – it’s linking time:
David Meerman Scott recently updated his blog with a post titled Top Gobbledygook phrases used in 2008 and how to avoid them. This post was all about how press releases and other publications tend to use the same words or phrases over and over again rather than speaking the same language as the consumers.
I love the word Gobbledygook! How can you not? But while I love the word it is definitely something we all want to avoid. Read David Meerman Scott’s post for some pointers and a Gobbledygook grader tool created in a partnership with HubSpot.
And think twice when using words such as:
- Innovate
- New and improved
- Cost effective
- Flexible
- World class
- High performance
- Optimize
Because apparently everyone else is using them too!
Leave a Comment » | Blogging | Tagged: bloggers, Blogging, Blogging tips, david meerman scott, gobbledygook, Hubspot, linking blogging, problogger, problogger challenge | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 9, 2009
Well, here we are on Day #4 of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Today’s task was to check out a few other blogs out there that are within the niche that most of your own blog posts can be categorized. Of course you will want to focus on blogs that appear to be successful. Once you have identified these blogs, take a look at what you can learn from them.
Below are a few things you can look for (several of which are from ProBlogger):
- What does the blog look like? How have they incorporated navigation or additional links?
- What does the purpose of their blog appear to be?
- How often is the blog being updated?
- How are visitors able to subscribe to stay updated?
- What are they blogging about?
- How are they formatting the blogs? Lists? Short? Long?
- What topics are they blogging about? Are they generating conversation?
- Which posts get the most comments? Are there similarities?
- What can you take back to your blog to implement?
Take just a FEW action items away from this evaluation. Do not try to change too much too quickly. Pull out the golden nuggets. Experiment with a few things that make sense and are in line with your blog’s purpose to see if they can work for you.
Not sure which blogs you should take a look at? Try Robert Scoble’s Blog , Mark Cuban’s Blog , Chris Brogan’s Blog or even our Fusework Studios Blog.
Leave a Comment » | Blogging | Tagged: analyze blog, Chris Brogan, evaluate blog, fusework studios, mark cuban, problogger, problogger challenege, Robert Scoble | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 8, 2009
Today is Day #3 of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. The task for today is to promote the list blog post that we published yesterday. I typically promote each blog post that I write using Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic. Yesterday’s post was no different. In fact, within 5 minutes of posting the link on Twitter I had already received 19 click-thrus on the link. I also have my blog set up to feed into several other social networking sites on which I am present – such as Smaller Indiana and LinkedIn. These have been relatively effective in increasing traffic, but I am always looking for other avenues to explore. 
ProBlogger has listed some additional ways to promote your blog within this task a few of which include:
- Asking another blogger with relevant content to your post to include a link back over to your blog – it may take some time to develop these relationships before you are comfortable asking
- Including your blog URL in your email signature – don’t forget your blog is a part of your contact information
- Email marketing – this is a great way to see an immediate, significant impact
- Post comments on other blogs – a great way to develop reciprocal linking relationships
- Followup posts that build off of previous posts within your blog to increase momentum - this was my personal favorite and one I will immediately implement
These were just a few that stood out to me. You can read the full list of 11 Ways to Promote a Blog Post here.
So…I am in interested in your feedback. What have you found to be an effective way to promote your blog? Do you promote individual posts or your blog as a whole? Please share in the comments.
1 Comment | Blogging, facebook, twitter | Tagged: Blogging, facebook, how to promote blog, increase blog traffic, linkedin, problogger, problogger challenege, problogger challenge, promoting blogs, share posts increase traffic, Smaller Indiana, twitter | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 7, 2009
Today is Day 2 of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Still being a little unsure what to expect each day of the challenge, I was relieved when the homework assignment to write a list in a blog post appeared in my inbox today. Not that I don’t like a good challenge, but this one happened to come with perfect timing.
A few of us at Fusework Studios were recently invited to be guests on one of our favorite weekly blog shows – Brandswag TV. The topic for this week’s webisode was The beauty of video blogging. Ironically enough, our conversations within this video turned into a list on why video is important in social media and on the web. Check out a few of our points below!
1. Video is very well received on the web – just look at the popularity of YouTube and Vimeo.
2. Video delivers content in a way that adds interactivity – hearing, seeing, connecting. Very powerful.
3. Video encourages sharing – people are very likely to share a great video online…this can make your video go viral fast.
4. Video in social media the perfect way to show personality. Don’t just be a profile or screen name. Be a real person. Use video from time to time.
5. Video is an entertaining way to deliver a message. It is very easy to include graphics, sound effects, etc. that make the message effective and engaging at the same time.
6. Video is quick and to the point. A ton of content can be overwhelming. Especially when you can convey the same point in a 1 minute video.
7. Video is fun. It’s always nice to take a break from writing blog post after blog post t0 record a video. A great way to combat writer’s block.
Check Episode 10 of Brandswag TV for more information on “The beauty of video blogging.”
Special thanks to Colin Clark and Kyle Lacy for having us on the show.
1 Comment | Blogging, social media, Viral marketing | Tagged: brandswag tv, list blog post, popularity of video on the web, problogger, problogger challenge, video in social media, vimeo, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 6, 2009
I am participating in the ProBlogger 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge and today is the first day. The homework assignment for today: create your blog’s elevator pitch. So here we go!
Let me start with the Tagline for my blog:
Interactive. Multimedia. Expressions. To learn more about this tagline read my earlier blog post about its meaning.
Elevator Speech for D-Mac’s Blog:
D-Mac’s Blog was created to share knowledge, experience and inspiration with the business professional and everyday web surfer alike through the use of multimedia, interactive expressions. If you become a reader of my blog you can expect topics that include: social media tools that can increase online relationship building, product reviews with recommendations, and online/offline resources that can add a new way of thinking to your everyday life. You can also expect an “off the wall” post every now and then just to keep things fresh.
If this sounds like something you would be interested in, then you might want to check out derekmcclain.com
So, there it is. What do you think? If you have an elevator speech I would love for you to share as well.
1 Comment | Blogging, derek mcclain | Tagged: blog elevator speech, blog tagline, dmacs elevator speech, problogger, problogger challenge | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 5, 2009
Seth Godin has been reminding us frequently in his recent blog posts about the importance of tapping into our current client base as our greatest resource for increasing sales. This concept is not something new, as we all are probably familiar the classic 80/20 rule. Yet it is a concept that is very easily forgotten. We often get focused on finding new clients instead of finding new ways to approach our current clients to open the doors to additional opportunities.
This is often true in social media as well. It is very easy to get caught up in trying to increase our awareness online, form new relationships and drive new business using social media. But what about our current clients? How are we using social media to strengthen relationships with them?
If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to take a moment to check your social media profiles to see how many of our current clients are out there. Send them a message. Share something cool you found online with them that you think they might be interested in learning more about. I think you will find them to be very receptive to this initiative. 
Your current clients should not be just another connection or friend. If you work together they should be your greatest social media ally.
Leave a Comment » | Seth Godin, social media | Tagged: 80/20 rule, Seth Godin, social media clients, social media current clients, social media relationships | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 2, 2009
Very simple, straightforward blog post today. Darren Rowse at ProBlogger is putting together a “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” challenge. Here is a brief description:
We all want to improve and grow our blogs, but sometimes we just don’t get around to it. This challenge is designed to encourage that every participant hold themselves accountable for bettering his or her blog. Each day an email will be sent with some information and a homework assignment. The main objective is to transform the ideas into ACTION.
The 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge starts April 6th.
I am in. Are you?
Register here if you haven’t already clicked on one of the above links.
2 Comments | Blogging | Tagged: 31 days to build a better blog, Blogging Challenge, darren rowse, improve blog, problogger challenege, sign up for blogging challenge | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 1, 2009
Well, it is official. This is not an April fool’s joke. Blackberry is ready to go head to head with Apple. The Blackberry App World is now available for download directly to your desktop and Blackberry smartphone.
Hundreds of applications are currently listed in the following 13 categories:
Entertainment, Games, Maps & Navigation, Music & Video, News & Weather, Personal Finance & Banking, Personal Health & Wellness, Productivity & Utilities, Professional & Business, Reference & eBooks, Social Networking & Sharing, Sports & Recreation, Travel
You may also search and sort by the top downloads. I am still searching for the Pandora app which was on all of the ads for the Blackberry App World, but is no where to be found. Or at least I have not found it within the Blackberry App World yet.
Several applications are free, while others range from $2.99 – $999.99 and according to Mashable developers will keep 80% of revenue vs. Apple’s 70 % of revenue. Let’s hope this is attractive enough to start bringing some of those iPhone apps to the Blackberry world. Another big thing to point out is that right now it appears that PayPal is required as the payment method for your purchases. Those who hate PayPal will not like the lack of payment options.
Having only had a limited amount of time to begin exploring the Blackberry App World, I have been impressed by the experience thus far. Everything appears to load and function smoothly with a wide variety of applications available for testing. I will keep you updated in future posts on my findings as I continue to learn more about which applications are most functional. Future posts will also include video for a more hands on experience.
If you have any links, recommendations, or thoughts on this please share with me.
3 Comments | apple, blackberry | Tagged: blackberry app store apple, blackberry app world, blackberry app world review, blackberry application, blackberry application downloads, blackberry application store, buy blackberry application, download blackberry app store | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
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