There is no quick fix for online privacy protection.  Unfortunately the internet is not an opt-in universe where the user has the power to check a box of whether or not to allow data tracking companies to track her clicks across the web.

What you’ll realize in reading this article that what most people don’t realize is that a visit to one article on a site like CNN actually allows dozens of companies to track your web browsing activities from that moment on.  Yes, they are doing much more than tracking you on that one website which didn’t tell you that these companies have deals with them to suck your information.

Another little known fact is that the goldmine for these companies is that they can track you because you are a friend of someone else.  For instance, if you are my Facebook friend and a data retrieval company is tracking me, they will be able to reach your information because we are connected.  This is truly the dark side of online connectivity.

Every day we go online, read news, share on social media sites, listen to music, research everything from how to cook a recipe to how the latest health fad can slim our waistlines. Each click of the mouse as we do these things leaves breadcrumb trails of our interests, needs and websites we stumble upon.

We all know that, right? But do you know about Flash cookies that leave an unlimited number of cookies on your computer? These cookies track your web browsing activity for hundreds of companies you don’t even know exist. They may have access to the information you leave about your finances, health, relationships, interests, birthdays, preferences, address, occupation, age and more. This information affects which online advertising you are served up, which credit card offers you are presented with, while also creating a profile of you with both correct and incorrect assumptions based on these connections.

I learned about Flash cookies, or Flash Local Shared Objects (LSOs), while watching a Ted Talk video of Gary Kovacs, the CEO of Mozilla, describe the new free Collusion Firefox add-on. Kovacs’ talk on Tracking the Trackers is a wakeup call to how much privacy we have unknowingly given away as the price of using the internet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Behavioral tracking, when done with our permission, can help companies we like to connect us to deals, offers, products and services that make our lives better. But the reality today is that the majority of the companies that track us online and collect data on our activities never asked for permission and we never would give them permission if they did ask. As an industry described by Kovacs as being worth over $39 billion, it is safe to assume they will fight regulation and giving consumers the power to choose which companies they allow to track their online information.

Rules and regulations for consumer protection against the darker side of behavioral targeting have not been created. If Lori Anderson, the author of I Know Who You Are and I Know What You Did, has her way, we will eventually create a social networking constitution that may be the first positive step in rectifying this situation.

To protect yourself and your family today you can add Collusion, Better Privacy and No Script to your Firefox browser. If you are a Chrome browser user you can add Keep My Opt-Outs and Do Not Track PlusChrome browser extensions and follow these steps to manually remove Flash cookies from your computer.

This article was originally published in The Huffington Post

Content marketing should be a key ingredient in your social media and digital marketing recipe.  It takes a lot of time, but when it’s done correctly it can be the gift that keeps on giving.  Great content begets great benefits; people – even prospects and customers – will like you more, your employees will be happier to work for your company, more people will talk with you and about you, and even better, they’ll trust and care about you.

How do you become the recipient of such great rewards?  You start by remembering the following Top 10 content marketing tips every time your lightning fast fingers prepare to make a keystroke on that keyboard sitting in front of you right now.

Paste the following words of wisdom on the wall above your computer screen (or on the outside of your laptop to share them with the world) and let them light the way to your content marketing success:

1.  Don’t write a word, share pictures or post videos unless you want to.  In life there are “have to’s” and “want to’s”.  We run away screaming from “have to’s” and wild horses can’t keep us from doing our “want to’s”.  If you don’t want to write, if content creation doesn’t turn you on, if you don’t smile when you finish posting content, then you need to hire someone who does to do create your content.   Otherwise, you’ll create very little content, and what content you do create will carry that feeling of being an uninspired chore rather than an attractive passionate expression.

2.  Focus on giving.  You’ll notice that the content you love to consume has an element of the author giving you something.  It may be inside information, helpful tips, funny videos, infographics that help to explain a complex topic, pictures that make you smile, or stories that you relate to and care about.  The point is that we love content that makes us feel good, so as a content creator, that’s the best kind of content for you to focus on.

3.  Know your business goals.  Not doing this is the #1 problem with online marketing.  You need to develop informed goals for your company and create content to support those goals.

4.  Reach the right audience.  Content marketing is attraction marketing, so post content that will attract the people that matter the most to your business, who care about your expertise, and who will share it with their like-minded friends.

5.  Communicate with a friendly tone and flavor.  Don’t come off like a robot.  The basis of why social media works is that people want to connect and be validated.  That means they want to read, see and hear content that reaffirms that they are in the right place, doing the right things with the right people.  The tone of your content needs to be similar to how you communicate with your closest friends and dearest neighbors, not how you communicate with the customer service robot at your least favorite telecom company whom you feel no connection to.

Digest these ideas, leave comments on how these content marketing tips have worked for you, and come back for the final five tips next week!

This post was originally posted in the Smart Simple Social Blog.

In less than two years since it’s launch, Pinterest has blasted off to be one of the fastest growing social networks of all time.  At the end of 2011 the site was listed by Hitwise as one of the top 10 social networks when it had grown to 11.7 million monthly unique visitors.  This made Pinterest the fastest site in history to pass 10 million monthly unique visitors.  Since the first week of 2012, Pinterest has surpassed YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Yahoo and Bing in driving referral traffic to retail websites.

This is undoubtedly impressive, but what does this mean for your brand?  Should you be on Pinterest?

The short answer is yes.  Historically, most companies wait a little too long to dip their toes into a new social network to make sure that it’s going to last.  This leaves them playing catch up, and you don’t want to be late this party.  At the very least you should secure your brand username before a squatter does.

The longer answer is maybe.  There are a few key considerations with how to allocate business resources that should always be considered before committing them to developing social media communities:

1.  Is your audience hanging out on this social network?

2.  Is your audience actively participating on this social network?

3.  What are your business goals that will be tied to your activities on this social network?

4.  What is your overall social media marketing strategy and how well does Pinterest fit in?

5.  Are “Pinners” already spreading your brand around Pinterest?  Type the following URL into your browser and replace “yourdomain.com” with your own web site: http://pinterest.com/source/”yourdomain.com” to follow and identify “Pinners” and boards that your brand’s content is appearing on.

Lifestyle brands benefit the most from Pinterest.  Currently 97% of Pinterest’s 1 million+ Facebook fansare women.

The current Pinterest user base is 83% female; 30% of whom are 25-34 years old, and 25% of whom are 34-45 years old.  These women are well educated with over 60% having some college experience, 19% holding Bachelors degrees, and 6% holding Graduate degrees.  They are more likely to live in mid-west states with 35% living in households with incomes between $25,000-$49,999, 34% living in households with incomes between $50,000-$74,999, and 14% living in households with incomes between $75,000-$99,999.

Therefore, if this is your target audience and you aren’t on Pinterest, you should open a new tab on your browser and request an invite.  Yes, Pinterest has had the growth mentioned above as an invite-only website.

If this is not your target audience, consider how your products and services can become attractive and valuable to this active audience.  Think about the lifestyle benefits and attributes of what your company offers and how your customers use your products or services to enhance their lifestyles.  If you’re not sure where to start, there are dozens of resourceful articles that can steer you in the right direction.  It would be a shame to not connect with all of these people who are having fun, sharing pictures and videos, and driving traffic to retailers.

This article was originally published on Room 214 ‘s Capture the Conversation

One of the greatest days of my life was last October when I found a dear friend from my teenage years on Facebook.  I had been looking for Chris on Facebook for over four years.  Through my high school years we had many adventures that were capped off with following U2′s Joshua Tree tour  from Vegas to San Diego over my first college spring break.

It turned out that one of his relatives had told him to travel the world and he would never regret it.  That relative was dying and left Chris a lot of money, so at 19 Chris took off on a world tour and settled in Germany.  We lost touch, but I thought of him often because he was one of my closest friends.

Last October we talked for the first time since he left the U.S. and I was thrilled …until the conversation got to the part where he told me he had been fighting cancer since 2007.  I was bummed, but over the last 5 years I’ve known 4 people who beat cancer and heard lots of stories of more survivors which left me hopeful for Chris.

Then last Friday night as I was wrapping up work I received a message from a mutual friend asking if I knew about Chris’ Caring Bridge blog.  I hadn’t, but she gave me the link to log in to his page where I read a detailed update of how things turned for the worse while his family was visiting him over the holidays.

The post started out with an admission that doctors cancelled a transplant that was scheduled, ended all treatments and told him to prepare for less than a month to live.  A shock went through me and I felt stabbed in the heart.  I’ve had friends die which is hard, but knowing that someone my age who has inspired me, been like a brother to me, and just reconnected with me is having to prepare to leave the planet brought me to tears.

“What would I do if someone told me that today would be my last day?”  It’s been a cliche question all the times I’ve heard it until the question hit me while wishing I’d not lost all those years with Chris and knowing that it’s not an option in the future.  Reality bites and death sucks.

In the last few years I’ve known almost 10 people who died before they turned 50 years old and each time it gave me pause, but then I fell back into life’s routines without feeling the breath of death on my neck and expecting that I’ll have another 40 or 50 years of living to do.  I may, and I may not.

The first time I met death was in sixth grade.  Steven Urioste, the boy who played saxophone next me & gave me tips on how to play better in band class every day, was swinging on bars in the sandbox at lunch.  I was talking to him when he dropped to the ground and never got up.  I don’t remember his cause of death, only that he fell off the bars and no one could help him to breathe again.  I cried at his funeral, despite the priest making lame attempts to tie Steven’s life to football game metaphors, but I was young and moved on.

Chris’ dance with cancer is something no one should have to experience, but especially a person who I’ve known to be so sweet, loving and generous.  His blog posts are filled with his humor and love despite the physical and emotional pain he’s experiencing.

Death hasn’t made his spirit lose an once of joy from how I remember him.  And the comments, which number over 150, are tale after tale of how Chris positively impacted so many people’s lives across multiple continents.  The comments to his posts made me cry even more than his eloquent words (he’s a writer, as well as a great guitarist and singer) because they are never ending stories of his impact on those fortunate enough to have worked with him, played with him and shared wonderful moments of life with him.

So each day going forward as I appreciate the hours and days I have left, they will be in tribute to Chris.  In his dying and how he’s handling it he’s given me the greatest gift of not taking moments, days, weeks, months or years for granted any longer.

Beyond not sweating the small stuff, I’m making the most of every day to enjoy the people I love, do work that fulfills me, and make time for the things that matter most.  And I don’t expect a day to go by where I won’t be thinking of Chris, maybe crying, but always smiling and be grateful for his having been a central actor in the play that is my life.

On a last note, Caring Bridge is providing an amazing service by giving private websites and blogs to people who are ill.  If you know of anyone going through health issues please encourage them to check out Caring Bridge as a way for them to share their stories and love with their personal communities.

I’m very thankful that I was able to discover that Chris is about to die from him, in his own words, and I was able to comment and share my love and appreciation for him with him before he dies, even though he’s 5,056 miles (or 8,137 kilometers) away.

Facebook was a gift in finding him before he died, and Caring Bridge was a gift in loving him along with others who love him while we still had time to connect.  One blog post just profoundly changed my life, therein lies why I love the influence of social media.

Live every moment like it’s your last my friend.  Love the people and animals in your life with every ounce of love in your heart.  Life’s much too short and death is much too unpredictable.

Two bills being voted on next week in the House of Representatives contain language that could censor the Internet in ways you would never imagine.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate are well meaning, but if passed, will be destructive to internet freedoms we’ve all come to expect as well as forces that have helped innovation on the internet flourish. Both pieces of legislation greatly weaken theDigital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which for over a decade has helped Internet companies grow and flourish.

The recording industry, movie studios and television studios are the driving forces behind these bills. We are all very aware of how the music industry ‘s slow and regressive response to digital music backfired while not helping recording artists or the music industry.

Instead of creating better ways to legally download music (as Apple did for them by creating iTunes), their solution was to sue music lovers. Imagine the repercussions of this industry, and the Hollywood studios that have not adapted to how digital innovations have affected their industry, dictating policies that regulate the Internet.

Some of the companies and organizations that have opposed these bills so far include American Express, AOL, Creative Commons, Demand Progress, Discover, eBay, Etsy, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, LinkedIn, MoveOn, Mozilla, OpenDNS, PayPal, Twitter, Visa, Wikimedia Foundation, Yahoo! and Zynga. They are joined by web founders, public interest groups, non-profits, advocacy organizations, thinktanks, industry associations, websites, online services, cybersecurity companies, engineers, international human rights advocates, entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs, executives, venture capitalists, academics, experts, educators, editorial boards and student newspapers.

Would you rather have these companies and Internet-related professionals determine what’s best for the Internet and its users? We can probably agree that they are more aware of what’s beneficial for the Internet than the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Reddit has announced a blackout on January 18th to protest SOPA and Wikipedia is considering joiningthem. Thousands of people are changing their Twitter and Facebook avatars to include a Blackout SOPAbadge across their face in protest.

SOPA and PIPA aim to help private corporations shut down unauthorized websites where people download music, movies, and TV shows. Most of these websites are outside of America, so these corporations are looking to combat them in a few ways. 1) Block access to infringing domain names. 2) Sue U.S. based search engines, blogs, websites, directories and forums to remove links to these sites. 3) Stop funding these websites by not allowing advertisers to support them.

The consequences that SOPA and PIPA supporters do not mention include: 1) This will not stop downloaders. History has proven this. 2) It will cripple startups by allowing corporations to sue any company they decide is not filtering to their subjective satisfaction. One of these lawsuits can easily bankrupt new websites and search engines that offer competitive alternatives to their corporate brethren. 3) The ambiguous language in PIPA and SOPA leaves plenty of room for misinterpretation that can make websites pioneering new avenues look like pirates. In the past, this could have affected sites like YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook and hundreds of other social sites where people express themselves, organize protests, share news or make art.

The bottom line and main question to ask yourself is, “Do I trust the U.S. government to censor the Internet and protect free expression of its people? And if I do, do I trust other governments who will probably follow suit?” The next question to ask yourself is, “Is it worth the potential of creating a censored internet that is less innovative and stable in order to possibly help the RIAA and MPAA sell more music and movies?”

I strongly recommend contacting your Senators and Congressional Representatives or visiting American Censorship to make your voice heard on these critical bills that can negatively impact the Internet that you use every day. If online activists could make GoDaddy flip its support on SOPA and PIPA, then it can happen with Congress too.

This article was originally posted in Huffington Post

All attempts so far to create economic policies to stimulate the economy have failed. The economic stimulus act of 2008 proved to be a partial success or absolute failure depending on whose opinion you agree with. Regardless of how this act affected banks like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, the American people only noticed their economic standings continue to spiral downward.

It’s time to try something new. In reviewing the Tumblr blog for We Are The 99% there are a few themes that appear. People feel that they are mostly hurting because of the lack of job opportunities, the low wages of being underemployed, rising food costs, unaffordable health care and trying to pay off student loans.

What would happen if criteria was created by which Federal student loan debts could be forgiven in a fashion similar to how we have forgiven the debts of Third World Countries? As of June 2010, Americans owed $826.5 billion in student loans. This was the magic number that put student loan debt at the top of the debt mountain with the distinction of surpassing American credit card debt.

This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post. Read the full article here.

From the Apple I and Apple Lisa (the first computer to use a graphic interface) to Toy Story, the iPad2 and everything in between, Steve Jobs has impacted our lives in more ways than I can count.  Hearing of his illness and then of his resignation as Apple’s CEO has both saddened me and reminded me of how much I appreciate the contributions he’s made.

I’m most thankful for the ripples of innovation, creativity and inspiration that he, and the products he’s helped to create, have given us.  Apple and Pixar products have made life more entertaining, work more fun and birthed new industries. Here are my two favorite videos reflecting the life and contributions of Steve Jobs.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, be happy that it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

The Life and Career of Steve Jobs

Click here to view the embedded video.

Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencent Address

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve been a bad boy.  Sort of.

I haven’t written a blog post in what seems like a year.  And if you’re a blogger you understand how that gnaws at your brain on a daily basis.  Which is why I carved out time to write this even though my ‘to do’ list says I don’t have time to write right now.

The reason I haven’t written is that it turns out that launching a company and servicing the great clients I’m grateful to have takes time. A lot of time.

And that time takes away from things like sleeping, connecting with friends and writing blog posts.  But as important as it is to do great work for clients, connecting with people and being in the right conversations is just as important.

This struck me when I was in a meeting with a client last week.  Their product is an iPhone app and I learn almost as much from them as I teach them.  When we work on strategy I learn a lot about their business and hear what they’re learning from their peers and other advisers.

I discover tools, tactics and resources that I wouldn’t know of otherwise.  This is helpful for me in general, but it also helps our three other  iPhone / iPad app clients (as well as our non-app clients actually.)

Realizing this put more importance on trying, whenever possible, to not skip out on the networking events, meetups and online chats that I love.  I was reminded of how many people I’ve met and resources I’ve learned about from putting myself in the right conversations.

Most of the time I didn’t know they were the right conversations to be in until later.  But if you don’t go, you don’t know who’ll you’ll meet or what you’ll learn that will move your business or your life forward in valuable ways.

For instance, for years I had coffee with anyone who wanted to meet up under the guise of connecting with another smart, fun creative person to add to my network.  I’d schedule at least one of these a week when I was meeting a lot of cool people. I love to connect and help people so this is very fun for me and sometimes fruitful, like meeting my girlfriend through connecting on Twitter and then meeting for one of these coffee meetings.

Though I’m not able to make time to do this more than once a month anymore, today I signed an awesome new client who had a friend who knew one of my peers who I did the coffee thing with a year and a half ago.  You just don’t know where connecting with great people and going to the right places to get into the right conversations will lead you.

My best conversations happen with clients, thought leaders, on Twitter, in the comments of blog posts, at the Boulder Open Coffee Club, Boulder Denver Tech Meetup, conferences and meetups I learn about on Plancast or through friends.

Where do your best conversations happen?  How do you find them?  What’s your greatest story of something great happening as a result  your having been in the right conversations?

The Gap wanted to look like a more forward leaning company so they hired an agency to redesign their logo.  The new logo was active for almost a full four days before Twitter and Facebook users tore it to shreds.  Gap went back to the old logo so fast that the new logo hardly had time to be noticed offline before entering the annals of history as the logo version of New Coke.

You can avoid making the mistake they made by better understanding how marketing and branding work in the 21st century.  Even better, you can discover some good marketing tips to help your business.

1. Crowd source ideas before you launch them. No one but Gap executives and the ad firm they hired for the new logo know how much offline customer feedback was integrated into choosing the new logo.  Regardless of the amount, it obviously wasn’t enough.  The president of The Gap even noted that they need to have dialogue with their customers, but she didn’t think of that until it was forced upon her via the backlash.  What’s odd about not involving customer feedback in this case, though it is standard old school business practice, is that a logo change is an action taken specifically to connect deeper with customers.

What decisions are your company making that would be helped by involving your customers through crowd sourcing?  How much goodwill can you create through showing that you care about their ideas and involving them in growing your brand?

2. Do not listen at your own peril. Follow the Fortune 100 and monitor your brand online.  Last year most companies were still denying the relevance of social media.  This year they are diving into using social media though oftentimes it is done haphazardly with no coherent strategy).

The first step in utilizing the power of online communications is to listen to what people are saying about you, your competition, your industry, and relevant keywords.  If you are listening and responding you are mastering the first step of effective online interactions.  If you are pro-actively generating conversations and interest in your company then you are marching ahead of most of the pack.  How are you using monitoring tools to grow your business?  What can you learn from monitoring online conversations that will take your business to the next level?

3. Online communities include your customers. If your company is not driving a branded community like a Facebook page, your customers are hanging out in other communities instead of yours. Once they are in your community also, remember that they are in control, not you.  As much as you may try to lead them, when you have a faux pas like The Gap’s new logo, they will be louder than you in your community.  And this is a great thing, because it shows that they care and they are giving you free R&D to help you to do better.

At the same time you need to plan ahead regarding how to handle negative comments like the one AT&T was flooded with when they started a Facebook page.  What kind of community do you want to have?  How will you grow it? What conversations are imperative to start in order to build the greatest relationship possible with your community? How can you empower community members to drive the conversations?

4.  Everyone is a media outlet in 2010. By the time offline media covered this story The Gap had already gone back to the old logo and most people had no idea that there ever was a new logo or that people hated it.  The Gap Facebook page is where the controversy began and then Twitter added fuel to the fire by alerting armies of bloggers about the issue.

In the article referenced above with the president of The Gap she mentioned that they rolled out the new logo with no fanfare.  It was noticed by customers who began shouting about it online.  How are you using the legions of influential people online who love your company to help you to spread your brand messages to the people who are most interested in your business priorities?

5.  All PR is good PR. You’re looking at The Gap’s new and old logos in this blog post which is a brand impression. When is the last time you thought about The Gap or bought something from them?  Well, they are now top of mind as we go into the holiday shopping season.  It is doubtful that the logo change was a PR stunt, but it worked marvelously anyway.  What can you do to have your products or services become top of mind at the times when your target audience is most likely to buy?

This article was originally published at Oxstein Labs.

This article was originally published at Oxstein Labs.

It’s a new day in America. With economic cutbacks mixing with technology advancing at light speed, most people are wondering how to keep up.  Throw in an exodus of jobs and people only working at companies for 2 to 3 years instead of 20 and we see a totally different job market than ever before in history.  Like it or not, everyone is a marketer now, even kids.

In the first three weeks of this school year my house was presented with fundraisers from schools and PTA’s for coupon books, a jog-a-thon and selling mattresses.  That’s not a joke, the high school had a mattress selling fundraiser which included pimping out kids to go door to door with flyers and post yard signs announcing “Up to 60% off” of mattresses.  This is how far our country has fallen.

I spoke with teachers about this and they hate it, but said “what can we do?”  Remember when teachers taught school?  Now they are forced to be sales managers directing kids from Kindergarten up to 12th grade to sell crap in order to buy school supplies.  Your kid is forced to do this after you’ve already spent money buying your own kids school supplies and paying taxes that were initially allocated for education.  Teachers and kids are now marketers and salespeople who have quotas to strive for, though they aren’t held accountable for missing them.

Do you remember when the police were mostly fighting crime?  You know, protecting and serving?  Have you noticed that your town feels more like you’re under surveillance than ever before?  Many cities have seen cutbacks lead to  laying off police officers.  The result has been that cops have increased ticket quotas to hit like sales goals.  They are threatened with losing their jobs because of cutbacks in their departments if they don’t make their quotas. These days you are a potential revenue source, a customer, before you are a citizen.

Though I don’t know how to help police officers and school teachers out of their delimma without reallocating federal funds from the defense budget to education and police departments, I know what workers can do. Employees need to realize that even when you don’t own a business, you are now an entrepreneur who must market her services.

If you go to a job interview with the same exact skills as another candidate who has online profiles and content showing off her expertise and you don’t, who do you think is going to get hired?  The other person will land the job simply because they are showing their value in the industry 24/7 online for any recruiter or HR person to review while you are only telling a job history on a resume.

The good news is that there are more ways than ever to build your personal brand to market yourself.  Here are the top three personal branding techniques that every person needs to use:

1. Have an optimized LinkedIn profile.  Just because you’re on LinkedIn doesn’t mean you’re in good shape.  Is your bio full of searchable keywords for recruiters?  Do you have a video?  Do you have recommendations?  Have you recommended others?  Do you have a Twitter feed adding real time content tpo your profile page? Are you answering questions in the Q&A area?  Are you participating in conversations happening in the Groups aligned with your industry?  If you need help with this look no further than Mike O’Neill and Lori Ruff‘s book, “Rock the World with Your Online Presence.”

2.  Start a blog. Blogs are where people share their interests, their passions and their expertise.  If you like to write, then use WordPress.  If you prefer short snippets of writing, photos and videos, you can blog on Posterous or Tumblr easier than you can dial a phone.

3.  Comment on the blogs that are the most popular in your industry.  Search AllTop or BlogSearch.Google.com with keywords used in your industry to find the best blogs.  Leave comments on articles where you have something of value to add to the conversation.  This can help you to build a relationship with experts in your field and it leaves a permanent comment that is like a sales person working 24/7 to share the fact that you have valuable skills with the world.

The 21st century is a time when you will lose ground in your career if you do not create a personal brand and market yourself.  Like it or not, it’s time to be the best marketer of you that you can imagine.