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Do you think the your schedule as a business owner is too demanding and busy for you to participate in networking? Some business owners might say their schedule is demanding enough at the moment, and the thought of adding one more activity to their busy calendar is unbearable. So why should they try to cram time into their already hectic schedules to join and actively participate in their local chamber of commerce ? There are many networking organizations but membership in the local chamber offers numerous benefits and keeps business owners on top of important, ever-changing issues and trends within their community and local marketplace. Not only that, but research points out that consumers have higher opinions and are more likely to do business with a company if it’s a member of their local chamber of commerce. According a research study by The Shapiro Group, Inc. and Market Street Services, when consumers know that a small business is a member of their local chamber of co

It’s kind of funny how Toastmaster’s Pathways wants me to do an Icebreaker speech. I'd rather be talking about my Sacramento Podcast . It’s the first speech of every path, even if you have already given 10 speeches and countless table topics. All the ice breaking things I could tell you about you already know: that I love to sing, I have dachshunds, I graduated from UC Davis and before that St. Francis High School, I used to be active in politics and I own a marketing business. Plus, I have a pretty open, chatterbox personality, so it doesn’t require high level investigative skills to get to know me. Given that situation, I thought I’d break the ice by telling you about what I want to accomplish in the next year. One of my goals in Toastmasters is to get proficient in online speaking - if I could teach a class or offer online training, I’d open up a whole new potential income stream. But it’s not so easy. When you speak online you don’t get the encouragement of smiling faces. You

As we jump headlong into 2019, the digital Advertising Agencies continue with exciting journey through new ad formats, breaking news, and shifting ad budgets. To dive deep into the state of the industry and anticipate what the New Year will bring, we dove into industry data. These trends in digital advertising indicate new possibilities, persistent challenges, and ongoing turf wars among major industry players. Artificial Intelligence We have seen huge growth in targeted advertising, where the message is made to fit the viewer. For years, the quest for advertisers has been to ensure that their message is really hitting its mark. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and its associated technologies, can help do that. AI helps eliminate the guesswork in targeted advertising. With access to relevant information about a cohort (or even an individual audience member), advertisers can ensure that messages that aren't effective, or that work against a brand's positioning,

Social media is ever-changing. Be it new platforms, different consumption habits or varied forms of communication, Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc. are always coming up with innovative features or affordances that add different dimensions to the platforms. These changes not only help users engage in a number of different ways with their favorite brands online but also give marketers a chance to captivate their audiences through an array of tools and tactics. Twitter Still Works Social Media Trend #1: More businesses use Twitter than every other social channel not named Facebook. Let’s interpret this response through the lens of a marketer: The social media channels that executives know about (and therefore want to see business accounts for) are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. A second tier of channels is specialty platforms, which are LinkedIn & YouTube (and Pinterest, maybe). These are not useful to everyone, but could be impactful wi

SEO is good for your site. The catch is, not all SEO is equally good. Do you still think a super SEO technique is to stuff your titles? Example: Sacramento Roofing Contractors making Roofs for Sacramento homeowners who have a room on their Sacramento home. Google Panda “Conversational search” is one of the biggest examples Google gave. People, when speaking searches, may find it more useful to have a conversation. “What’s the closest place to buy the iPhone 5s to my home?” A traditional search engine might focus on finding matches for words — finding a page that says “buy” and “iPhone 5s,” for example. Hummingbird should better focus on the meaning behind the words. It may better understand the actual location of your home, if you’ve shared that with Google. It might understand that “place” means you want a brick-and-mortar store. It might get that “iPhone 5s” is a particular type of electronic device carried by certain stores. Knowing all these meanings may help Google go b

A new study from Harvard showed that when employees move from a traditional office with traditional office furniture to an open plan office with modules and cubes, it doesn't cause them to interact more socially or more frequently. Instead, the opposite happens. They start using email and messaging with much greater frequency than before. In other words, even if collaboration were a great idea (it's a questionable notion), open plan offices are the worst possible way to make it happen. Any space that’s outdated portrays the sense that it is not cared for. In the business world, not caring for the environment that your staff works in will immediately translate into the notion that you don’t care about the staff. Workers need a healthy upbeat environment to do their best work. Studies show that color and vibrant modern designs inspire creativity. Businesses today need to be agile and think out of the box. Creativity is a necessity to get one up on the competition. Wor

When was the last time you updated your website? If your car is newer than your web design , you're probably out of date. Put the Design back into web design with a site remodel. 3D Design After several years of designs being fabulously flat, there’s a new sheriff in town — 3D. Breathe life into your projects by embracing 3D design elements. For example, the almost-stick figure way of illustrating humans in flat design can take on 3D form and be featured both in graphics and as avatars or brand mascots. Bringing your life to work in 3D allows you to recreate the world around you and to construct new environments and dimensions. Expect to see designers use 3D elements to enhance web pages and to create AR and VR experiences. Voice Interfaces Voice-command interfaces or conversational devices are relevant because they reduce the time and effort of the interaction. With voice command we can log in to a platform, saving us the bother of remembering and typing passwords, navig