Our town was hit with a good bit of snow this week. Here are a few shots from around our place.

A lot of people have asked me about Google Analytics lately.

In this video blog I talk about (and show you):

1. Why you need Google Analytics
– It takes the mystery out knowing where your web traffic is coming from
– It helps you maximize the effort you put into your website or blog

2. How to set it up in two simple steps (email me if you need more help with this)

3. What information you should pay attention to and why
– Dashboard
– Traffic Sources
– Visitors
– Content

An avatar is one of the little nuances of Web 2.0 (and no, I’m not talking about the movie).  If you don’t know what an avatar is, it’s that little picture that shows up next to a comment on blogs and different websites.

Instead of setting up an avatar for each site you visit and comment on, it’s easy and free to set up a global avatar that follows you. It uses your email address to track your comments and posts on the web.

You can set yours up at Gravatar.

A wise person once told me that it is always good to have a bias for action.

When we are presented with an opportunity, a challenge or a decision, it is almost always better to lean toward doing something rather than sitting around thinking about it or analyzing it to death.

This also applies to plain ‘ol everyday life (although a life full of action is anything but plain). Do something constructive with your time. Teach people, help people, build stuff, design stuff. We were created to create.

People sometimes ask how I can be so productive. I think it has a lot to do with my bias for action. I try to keep this mantra top of mind.

Do you have a bias for action?

Here’s a little preview of a video we recently produced for WorshipHouse Media. We’ll add a link to the full video once it’s uploaded.

Trying a new format. Instead of writing, I’m talking.

According to a recent article in Ad Age, Microsoft is trying to get into the center of web-driven TV content.

It seems like Microsoft is putting their eggs into a dying basket.

In a keynote speech delivered Wednesday evening at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sketched out a short-term vision of the future of TV that, if he has his way, will have Microsoft software at its center:

Microsoft is talking about making TV content portable, something no one has mastered yet. But traditional network television is probably going to die a slow death just like newspapers and other big media. You can’t just push the same media through different channels and expect it to work. Video as an entertainment and educational medium is experiencing a fundamental shift in content and creation. Current is a good example.

Network television is for the masses. It’s the old paradigm. The new paradigm is a diced up, niche world where content and users are most important.

Don’t be fooled into thinking social media is the answer to your marketing problems.

Social media is a communication tool. That’s it.

Communication is nothing new. People have been communicating since the beginning of time. Only now instead of drawing pictures on rock walls, we type words into Twitter or Facebook.

Remarkable stuff is what matters.

If you don’t make or provide great stuff, no one will care about you. It doesn’t matter how much or how often you tweet, facebook, or spam, if you don’t have something remarkable to point people to, you are wasting your time.

I had coffee with a friend the other day who is a brilliant strategist and marketer. He’s doing a lot of social media consulting these days. He said that if a client wants to get into social media and they don’t have a truly remarkable product, the conversation about social media ends there. It’s futile. Social media doesn’t matter because no one is going to talk about your product or service if it’s not truly REmarkable (worthy of making a remark about).

So just make great stuff, or as Nick Campbell would say, “Make Cool Shit“

I recently discovered the blog of a business leader I respect very much.

I was excited. His blog has great content and great insight. It felt very authentic. It felt authentic until I clicked on the huge protruding “LEGAL” button at the top.

Come to find out, the site was “created” by this leader but it is “maintained” by the company. The legal notice goes on and on…and on about how you can and cannot use the site.

I’m not accusing this person of misleading his readers or anything like that. The point I’m making is that authenticity is critical. If you want me to believe that it’s really your thoughts I’m reading on your blog, don’t slap a huge corporate legal notice at the top. At the very least, tuck in down at the bottom.

This one is about keeping things simple. Much harder than making things complicated. Enjoy.