From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

John Manus at Adver-tees hooked us up this week with a good size embroidery project. We had polo shirts and book bags embroidered with our JASE logo branded on them.

John’s staff was very courteous, knowledgeable and timely on delivery. Adver-tees of Chesapeake (VA) comes highly recommended by us! Call John and tell him the JASE team sent you over there.

Adver-tees
www.bestdealonshirts.com
943 Canal Drive
Chesapeake, VA 23323
(757) 487-1424
(888) 487-3709

Brand, Business Adver-tees, backpack, book bag, Chesapeake, embroider, JASE Group Marketing & Advertising, John Manus, polo shirt, screen print, t-shirt, VA

I’ve talked with 3 or 4 clients in the last month or so that had apprehensions about blogging. Each of them had their own legitimate reasons for questioning whether they should blog or not. After we talked through their reasoning and a few case studies I was able to relay to them, each proceeded with their blogging venture.

The bottom line is that you need to get content out of your head and onto a platform so the search engines can help work for you. Content, content, content is a process that I preach constantly as one of, if not the, most important aspects of inbound marketing.

Okay, so. How can you get past the demons? Let’s list a few ways.

1. Keep a notepad handy. When a thought pops into your head, scratch it down. Complete it now or come back to visit the thought later. Doesn’t matter. Just get it down.
2. Read your thoughts aloud. Sometimes it helps to ‘hear’ your thoughts to make sense of them.
3. Read other blogs and RSS feeds. You will get many thought pearls from other folks.
4. Don’t procrastinate. Just do it.
5. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Two-way blog commenting communication is valuable on many levels.
6. Remind yourself of the value of inbound marketing!

Do you have other ways you have exorcised your demons?

* Image credit: Newsweek.

Social Media blog, grim reaper, inbound marketing, RSS

Proverbs 3:25-26

Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.

God confidence, disaster, fear, God, Jesus, Lord, protection, wicked

Several new laws have gone into effect beginning today, July 1, 2009. Of them is making it illegal for drivers to text or email while behind the wheel. The fine for such an offense: $20. Yikes. Who is that going to deter?

List of new laws in Virginia*:

• Ban reading or sending text messages or e-mails while driving.
• Allow voters to wear political T-shirts, buttons or other apparel to the polls.
• Prohibit stores from selling novelty cigarette lighters to those under 18.
• Require localities that collect guns as part of buyback programs to attempt to sell them to licensed dealers before destroying them.
• Allow courts to suspend the driver’s licenses of teens who miss 10 consecutive days of school.
• Impose a 10 percent tax on pay-per-view movies in Virginia hotel rooms, with the money divided evenly between the general fund and a pool of money that provides incentives for filmmakers to shoot movies in Virginia.
• Bar public access to a statewide database of Virginians with permits to carry concealed handguns. The public still could get information on concealed carry permit holders at each circuit court.
• Bar payday lenders from offering different types of loans in an effort to get around tough new restrictions placed on the short-term, high-interest loans.

* Source: WVEC.com

Community, Social Media BlackBerry, driver's license, driving a car, driving law, email, handheld, iPhone, law, MMS, Pre, Smartphone, SMS, texting, Virginia

Here are a few quick blogging tips to keep in mind so you don’t bore your readers stiff:

1. Write for your audience. Not for you. Not for your boss. Write for your readers.
2. Don’t write a book. Booorrring. If your readers want to read multiple pages, they’ll download a new book onto their Kindle.
3. Have a purpose. Don’t just ramble on your blog. You can do that on Twitter, JASEzone or some other microblog platform. Write blog articles that have a point to make or a question to ask. Which leads to the next point …
4. Ask questions. Get your readers involved in the communication.
5. Share information. Don’t fall into the old school mindset that you need to hoard your “mojo”. Believe me, it’s not yours. Someone else has already thought of it.
6. Be Switzerland. This one is hard sometimes. I know. But try to be neutral.
7. Publish your articles on a schedule. Or atleast a semi schedule. Don’t sweat missing a beat or two but try to be considerate and thankful of your readers that are coming back to you for information.
8. Link. Link. Link. Out. Link to your competitors. Link to other ‘experts’. They will appreciate the recognition and do the same back to you. Trackbacks work. I promise.

What are some other tips you can think of?

Social Media Amazon, blog, JASEzone, Kindle, microblog, mojo, reader, Switzerland, Twitter

Psalm 37:28

For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever.

God faith, faithful, God, Jesus, Lord, psalm

Community, Social Media, Speaking #NMC09, @NewMediaConv, Cavalier Yacht Club, convention, Facebook, FriendFeed, Google, inbound marketing, internet marketing, JASEzone, LinkedIn, new media, New Media Conventions, PR, public relations, search engine optimization, seminar, SEO, Social Media, social media marketing, Twitter, VA, Virginia Beach, Wi-fi

Mickey Mouse tweeted me. Don’t believe me? Look.

Thanks, Disney World, for a wonderful family vacation last week in Orlando. Our family of 19 thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Brand, Family, Social Media, Vacation / Travel Disney World, JASE, JASE Group Marketing & Advertising, Keith Parnell, Mickey Mouse, parnellk63, tweet, Twitter

We are back from vacation and the whole team is refreshed and ready to roll.

Wanna talk social media? Wanna talk inbound marketing? Wanna talk advertising? Wanna talk tech?

Call us - (757) 715-4595.

Email us - info@jasegroup.com.

We’re ready to talk.

Brand, Business, Marketing, Social Media inbound marketing, JASE, JASE Group Marketing & Advertising, Social Media, vacation

Family Disney World, Donald Duck, Florida, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Orlando, Pluto

Family Disney World, Florida, Mickey Mouse, Orlando

Family Disney World, Donald Duck, Florida, Mickey Mouse, Orlando

Family Disney World, Florida, Orlando

Family Disney World, Florida, Orlando

I’m on vacation this week with the family. Enjoy your week!

Family Disney World, Florida, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Orlando

12 time all-star, Wade Boggs, who was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, speaks out strongly against the cheaters in baseball. Good stuff! I wish more clean guys would speak out.

If you cant’ do it at 60 feet, 6 inches, you shouldn’t be playing the game.

If you can’t get get a guy out or you can’t get a knock off a guy without having something to enhance your performace, get out of the game.

- Wade Boggs

* Feeds reader folks: there is a video in this post. Watch it by clicking the post title.

Sports cheating, DirtyWaterTV.com, Hall of Fame, SportsCenter, steroids, Wade Boggs

Let’s be honest. This song is annoying. This dance is annoying.

But I can’t get it out of my head now. Ugh!

Great advertising by Jack in the Box.

Advertising, Video ad, Advertising, commercial, dance, Jack in the Box, song, television, Video, YouTube

From Wired.com -

MIT Chasing Down Phantom Traffic Jams
MIT mathematicians have developed a model that aims to explain phantom traffic jams - those backups which occur for no apparent reason - in the hope engineers could design build better roads to minimize the odds of them happening.

Very cool, smart guys. Can you please come to Norfolk (VA) and study the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel?

Community, Environment, Technology Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, HRBT, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Norfolk, traffic jam, VA

Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

God commit, Lord, success

We have run the course, given open source a fair shake and have come to the conclusion that we cannot resolve ourselves to an alternative solution. Microsoft Office wins.

We (JASE) made a very serious effort to migrate away from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org. We wanted it to work but open source didn’t take care of us in the end. Sad thing is, we love OpenOffice.org. What there is of it, that is.

What do I mean? WHERE’S THE EMAIL / SCHEDULING / TASK MANAGEMENT CLIENT? We can’t move to a solution that’s half a solution no matter how cheap (free!) it is.

We tried Gmail (yuck!). We tried Microsoft’s new Windows Live Mail (better than Gmail but not there yet). We tried Thunderbird. We tried Evolution. We tried several others. None come close to Outlook. Not even close on any level.

So there you have it. Microsoft Office wins by default for being a complete suite of tools for our daily needs.

Funny, that’s what we say about our organization- a full-service marketing and advertising agency. I guess we proved our credence is applicable in most any test case.

Business, Technology email, Evolution, Gmail, JASE Group Marketing & Advertising, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla, open-source, OpenOffice.org, Outlook, scheduling, task management, Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail

Jeremiah 6:16

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

God ancient path, crossroads, God, Lord, the good way, walk

Funny, funny, funny commentary from children on odd questions about ‘what would Jesus do?’.

Funny, God, Video Heaven, hell, Jesus, King Herod, meteorite, mobile phone, polar bear, Power Ranger, rocket ship, Romans, What would Jesus do?

Nicole and I cannot begin to express the sincere thanks for the thoughts, sentiments and prayers we have received from our social media family over the past week. Your thoughts and comments have been almost overwhelming during this tough time of loss for our family.

To our blog, JASEzone, Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook families: We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your friendship and prayers.

May God bless you all for your dear friendship.

Family, God, Social Media blog, cancer, Facebook, Family, father, father-in-law, FriendFeed, friends, illness, JASEzone, leukemia, prayer, thank you, Twitter

From: Keith Parnell [mailto:keith.parnell@jasegroup.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 10:11 AM
Subject: RE: Nicole’s Dad

For those of you that have not heard, Nicole’s Dad lost his battle with leukemia last night. After 8 long years of fighting he is finally at peace and pain free.

He never regained consciousness after his lungs failed from pneumonia Sunday afternoon causing his heart to stop, kidneys to stop functioning and brain waves to never get above c. 5%. Carl and Nicole decided last night to discontinue the ventilator that was keeping him breathing but not really living.

They have both been very strong but as you can imagine are devastated to have now lost both parents to this horrible disease (cancer). Please keep them both in your prayers.

A few of you have asked about a mailing address: cards for Nicole and Carl both can be sent to our home: 614 Georgia Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23508. Their Dad’s name was James (Jim) Anderson.

Thank you all for your wonderful support and prayers.

-kp.

Keith Parnell, MSE
CEO & CIO, JASE Group, LLC
www.jasegroup.com

www.CoffeeWithTheCEO.com

How to contact me:
* http://jasezone.keithparnell.com [try me here first]
* 757.715.3595 cell [voice mail at your own risk; JZ is better]
* 757.715.4595 office [good luck catching me here]
* 877.342.JASE fax [for the traditionalists]

Learn about me:
* http://www.keithparnell.com
* http://blog.keithparnell.com

Where I hang out:
* http://jasezone.keithparnell.com
* http://twitter.keithparnell.com
* http://linkedin.keithparnell.com

* http://facebook.keithparnell.com

Once a problem is properly defined, it is usually 90% solved. -jp. [my Dad, smartest man I've ever known]

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. -unknown
 

Family, God Carl Anderson, father, friend, James Anderson, leukemia, Nicole Blum

Did you happen to see the amazing speaker lineup for September’s New Media Conventions event? Wow!

Get your tickets now. Don’t wait.

• Keynote: Keith Parnell from JASE Group Marketing & Advertising
• Session #1: The Role of Public Relations in Social Media, Michelle Rogerson from Reina Communications
• Session #2: Successfully Monetizing Your Blog, Julie Maloney from Momspective
• Session #3: How to Benefit from the Power of Google, Kurt Noer from Customer Magnetism
• Session #4: Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign, 14 Characters at a Time, Renee Alexander Hamilton, Operation Smile

Community, Social Media 140 smiles, blog, convention, Customer Magnetism, Facebook, Google, JASE Group Marketing & Advertising, JASEzone, Julie Maloney, Keith Parnell, Kurt Noer, LinkedIn, Michelle Rogerson, Momspective, New Media Conventions, Operation Smile, PR, public relations, Reina Communications, Renee Alexander Hamilton, RSS, seminar, Social Media, social media marketing, Twitter