A Marketing Career

Years ago I wanted to get into “Sales and Marketing” primarily because I felt that the opportunities to earn what you truly deserve are more prevalent in sales positions than in traditional corporate management positions. Plus, sales is very optimistic, upbeat, forward thinking and you when you make a sale it is reason to celebrate your accomplishment. In corporate management, it is a lot of negativity, screwing people over and self serving. The only real reason a CEO has to celebrate is receipt of a fat bonus check earned off the sweat and sacrifice of all the worker bees.

In the early days when i was exploring the sales and marketing route, I asked a lot of my contemporaries, including other successful sale people and vendors, “What is the difference between “sales” and “marketing”? None of them gave me a good answer. It was only on my own exploration of the sales process and corporate structures that I discovered and embraced marketing. Over the years I’ve mastered quite a bit of the marketing principles and techniques in a variety of corporate settings. Now I am ready to step into the new millenium and learn more about internet marketing and search engine optimization.

Obviously I will make use of the internet for a lot of this effort. I have found some good articles about search engine optimization and internet marketing. One interesting aspect of the new marketing is that most of the traditional marketing logic does not apply. You have to shift mental gears into “geek think” instead of what works in the real world, because often they are very different and mistakes on your website can prove very costly and difficult to correct or overcome.

FB at Work?

A survey by Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project was released todaythat measured the attitudes by Americans toward using Facebook at work.

The responses indicated that 56 percent say “it is irresponsible” to be friends with a boss.

On the other hand, 62 percent said it is wrong to be friends with an employee.

Among workplace peers, 76 percent claimed it is acceptable to be Facebook friends with a coworker.

And with a rising practice in the Human Resources departments, Americans are almost evenly split on whether companies should review a job candidate’s Facebook or MySpace personal profile. From those surveyed, 52 percent said it is appropriate for the HR people and 48 percent said it is unacceptable.

Blogs Junkie

Each morning I try to read the online versions versions of 3-4 newspapers and then I try to reach 5-6 blogs of people or groups that I like. My very first exposure to a blog was just a couple of years ago when I accidentally came across a dot com that was a blog and I read it out of curiosity. I was hooked immediately.

When I decided to write my own blog I looked into the various formats and decided on using WordPress. It is easy to learn and use, and it is free to download and install. If you are looking for help with blogs, start with WordPress.

Desktop Audit

My blogger friends are sending around a “Meme” that asks you to post what’s on your desk. At the office I work in a cubicle with a wraparound desk and overhead bins that close and hide the mess. Here’s what’s actually out on the desktop and my little cubbie’s bulletin board:

  • my laptop and docking station
  • a cheap personal laser printer (for quick printing rather than going to the company network printer)
  • a little desk lamp that I brought from home to soften the flourescent lighting
  • my company phone
  • a docking station for my cell phone
  • four in and out trays
  • a Big Dogs coffee mug to hold my pens, scissors, highlighters, etc.
  • this year’s Predators team calendar
  • photoframe with snapshot of my buddies and me at my Hooter’s birthday party a couple years ago
  • a map of the U.S. divided into our company’s sales regions
  • printout of the company phone directory
  • a stack of business magazines

Kinda boring desktop, isn’t it? I have a policy of not keeping any personal stuff on my desk except maybe one or two photos. After the last job when I got fired and escorted to the door for being ethical and not doctoring the numbers on the sales reports that my boss demanded, I want to be able to leave with just one box of my personal belongings in a box and be gone with just one trip out the door to my car.

So, come on and tell me what’s on your desk and send me the link to your blog so I can read it!

Online SAHMs

I have a friend who would love to start blogging but she has no internet connection at her house. She is a stay at home mom, which is an important job, but let’s be honest, it doesn’t pay the bills. So I recognize the sacrifices that she and her husband are making for her to stay home and be a full time mother to her kids.

Still, I can’t help but think that there might be ways to help her without chipping away at her dignity. If she had access to the internet she could do so much – save money on things by comparison shopping and printing coupons, finding lots of free entertainment and activities for her family, blogging to stay in touch with family, and even taking some online college courses if she wants to.