May 14, 2016

blogging and influence

Blogging influences customers. Here's how:

  • They buy from blogs
  • They are inspired by blogs
  • They get assurance from buying from blogs
  • They discover new products and services
  • They get support and answers from blogs
  • They refine their choices from blogs
Every time you publish a blog post you get the opportunity to influence your readers.
Blogging is a good benefit.

Apr 18, 2016

blogging

Blogging allows you to connect with your audience, the people who want to follow you. You’ll be able to convert readers of your blog into followers.



Continue to engage them via your blog.

A blog will attract the search engines and will be featured highly in the search results. 

Blog regularly, ideally three or more times per week. Consider blogging as online marketing. Once you start to use a blog and make it part of your marketing campaign, you'll find that you won't need some of the other expensive advertising mediums. By being a regular blogger you’ll become an authority figure that others look to for advice within your niche.

You can tailor your blogging activities to meet the needs of your audience. 

Apr 7, 2016

margo price


Margo Price is making history. Her debut LP, Midwest Farmer's Daughter, is the first time a solo female has debuted in the Top 10 without any prior releases on the Billboard Hot Country Songs ranking.


The LP sold 4000 units in its first week to debut on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart at No. 10.

Rolling Stone Country named Margo to their list of  Artists You Need to Know in the Fall of 2014.


If that's not enough for this gal with the engaging voice, there's more. She received a stellar review from pastemagazine. com which also named Midwest Farmer's Daughter (Third Man) as a Best 10 Album of  March 2016.


She's coming across as an overnight success, but she is far from that. In show business, the overnight sensation rarely, if ever, happens. She's worked 12 years in Nashville for her current opportunity.

Margo is a 2001 graduate of Aledo IL High School. She then attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb for two years before going to Nashville. In November 2015 she inked with Third Man Records. Her debut effort has garnered rave reviews from several music information outlets.

Her recent appearances have included the Stephen Colbert Show and the CBS Morning Show.

Her next appearance is Saturday, April 9 at 10:35 PM Central on Saturday Night Live. SNL musical guests are very rarely of the country genre, so this is a particular network television honor.

Midwest Farmer's Daughter is available on Amazon

Her voice is a cross between Patsy Cline and Pam Tillis. Fresh and new, with plenty of traditional vibes. Just what country music needs.

Follow Margo on Twitter

Mar 31, 2016

cheap trick: bang, zoom, crazy... hello

On April 8, 2016 Cheap Trick will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


The album Bang, Zoom, Crazy... Hello is their first album since 2009, the longest break between albums. When I Wake Up Tomorrow is the second advance single. This song has been called "Bowie-esque". The similarities to David Bowie are evident, but it's not a rip-off. It's Cheap Trick genuine, and one could argue it's a tribute to Bowie. I could hear Bowie doing it.

"This song always reminds me of a sultry David Bowie song," says Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen. Click here to pre-oder the album.

The album will be supported by a tour that runs from April through September. The tour kicks off April 1st in Chicago. A good idea, since the band is from Rockford. They have been a concert favorite for many years, as they are known to play as much as 25 songs per show.

Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson, Daxx Nielsen, Robin Zander

The vinyl version of the album will be released on May 6th.

Mar 18, 2016

task of data

We are entering an age of disruption. Disruptors win big using data and analytics to create winning business strategies. This business strategy needs to come in four forms:

  1. A Unified Company Approach
  2. Customer Experience
  3. Connected Digital Ecosystem
  4. New Business Models
To excel at any one of these, a data-centric viewpoint is needed.

Intuition or experienced-based decisions aren't enough. This leads to more failures. In the data-driven era, company leaders need:

  1. Trustworthy data
  2. Timely data
  3. Contextually relevant data

These three items help find a strategic window.


This allows the unthinkable.

Marvin Ellison, new CEO of JC Penney, has taken on the "task of data". He is proving the primacy of customer experience, and more importantly, the primacy of data in driving great customer experience.

Ellison said, "Pure intuition without any data gets you in trouble." 

With data, Ellison was able to change JC Penney's chances of surviving and increase sales by 3.9% during the 2015 holidays. This data-driven influence helped with customer loyalty. Data helped place clothing in the stores' floor plans. He learned women do 80% of the buying in the stores, so clothing was arranged so women could easily shop for men's' apparel. There was also data for appliance shopping.

These decisions were made from data.