• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
• More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
• Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
• 9% of internet users say they have created blogs.
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
• Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
• Over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
• 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006.
• 51% of blog readers shop online.
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

The above statistics come from www.blogworldexpo.com Sobering statistics.  Also very useful statistics.  If you own a business — whether it be brick and mortar or at home — why wouldn’t you blog?

It’s a perfect showcase for what you do.

It’s an opportunity to share your knowledge and bring people into your store.

Blogs in the olden days (10 years ago) were more like journals.  Today they are vibrant, representative of your business and constantly being updated.

They can look like a website, then can have lots of pictures and they are relatively easy to produce.  I use the Headway Theme because I don’t need to know coding and it’s easy.  But there are plenty of options out there to produce a quality blog for your business.

And they are very low in cost – if your marketing budget is small, here’s an option you might want to use.

Do you have a blog?  Share your blog address in the comments – please!

I like that definition of champion. I once heard someone say “he’s my champion.  He looks out for me.”  Have you got a champion?  Are you a champion?

HeartofaChampion.org says this about a champion:

Champions do what is right even when it hurts.

Champions see every challenge as an opportunity.

Champions make those around them better.

Champions do the right thing even when no one is watching.

Champions dedicate themselves to prepare for success.

Champions put the success of others above individual achievement.

I think this week I’m going to practice being a champion.  Doing the right thing, helping someone else be successful, looking for the good in people.

But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself

I went to an event last night – and I was representing a local business at a reunion event.  I’m from a small town.  We pretty much know each other – or know someone who knows us.  I thought we’d have a great time welcoming guests and enjoying the live music.

Au contraire mon frere — I was invisible.  I was simply a vendor and did not exist.  The majority of the people who were in attendance wanted nothing to do with me.  Truly, I was invisible.  These were people I see in my community all the time.  I knew how Ricky Nelson felt at his garden party.   It was surreal and strange for me.

What did I learn from this lesson?  Pay attention to everyone.  Give a simple hello.  Smile.  I’m no better than you are.

We came to America to get away from royalty.

Saturday my mother’s family is meeting at the Geneva Church — all 84 of them.  Some are here from Alaska and Tennessee.  Mom is the oldest living relative left at age 81.  The old ones tend to live to 100 in her family.  I only pray that is true.

I learned some lessons on networking from Mom, Joanne and Carol – the three first cousins left alive.

1. Build relationships

Send a Christmas letter to your family members – not just a card.  The day will come when you want to pick up a phone and connect.  That short letter keeps the thread of relationship alive.

2. Remember important dates.

Get yourself a little date book, and write things down.  One day you may want to know when your great Aunt was born.  Or your children may want to know when you are gone.  We all desire to leave a memory.

3. Connect often.

For the past 10 years the three cousins have met at least 10 times a year to work on genealogy.  Mostly they looked at pictures and told stories and laughed a lot.  It strengthened their bonds, brought a sense of excitement to their schedules and through it all, they did remember.  The stories will live on – because they got together often.

4. Bring in the big guns when you need them.

Two years ago I got invited to come along.  Mostly it is my job to drive if mom is tired.  I brought my laptop and started to write down the stories.  I typed up letters they wanted sent.  I searched the internet for information.  I helped bring the information all together.  All of those things are easy for me – and allowed the cousins to continue enjoying their get togethers.  How smart are they?  They hired out the jobs they didn’t want to do!  They also got really great rates for the work – free.

5. Take pictures of everything.

Create a memory of the past by taking a picture.  Don’t forget to write the date, who’s in the picture and what you were doing.  You can scrapbook the pictures in a pretty book or put them in a box – either way, one day someone will want to look at them.

(the picture is my grandfather Eldon, his brother Bob and his sister Esther on their favorite pony – and yes, there is a story about that horse)

Wikipedia defines it as “The color commentator provides expert analysis and background information, such as statistics, strategy and injury reports on the teams and athletes, and occasionally light humor.”

Last night Rick Janssen and I were the color commentators for the Franklin County Fair Parade. We did give background information, light humor, foreground information, reminded the kids to stay out of the street, did our Public Radio and Race Day imitations — and just had a great time.

How did this all come about?

Scott Sackville said in a meeting he thought announcers at the parade would be fun.  Rick volunteered.  I thought it would be a good time, so I volunteered also.  The Chamber set up the dais, chairs, table and speaker system.  Rick and I sat on the dais, under a tent cover and talked for two hours straight.  We played well off each other.  I hope there was enough information for the listeners.  Parade entrants could hear us and we got a lot of thumbs up.

What does this have to do with marketing?

Simple: if you can’t be in the parade, do something at the parade. Small community parades are a great way to promote your business. Pat Palmer offers 10% off to everyone who takes a picture of him and his van in the parade.  Post it on facebook and you get your 10% off.  Not everyone in a small community is on facebook.  But dang near all of them come to the local summer parade.  Participate in the live event – then bring the reviews and stories online for all to read.

I couldn’t be in the parade – no float, car or idea for one.  I sure could announce it though!  It didn’t cost me anything to do that.  I bet if you went to your local chamber and gave them the idea to set up speakers on a busy corner and announce the parade, they’d jump at the idea.  See – we also talked about the Bandshell Renovation Project, Summer Fest, Hollydazzle, HACCers Open and everything else going on in town.

Every so often you are given the opportunity to play along side some incredible people.  That was my pleasure this past weekend in the production of Our Town.

I have the great fortune to live in a small town with a big attitude.  We get it.

Enjoy some clips from our theatrical production of Our Town set to music.  Next time you are in Franklin County, you just might want to stay awhile.

One of those things includes showing you some folks you might like to be friends with.  I use this feature often and like to meet new people.  Most of them are friends of friends.

So if you get a request from someone you don’t know, consider that Facebook may have suggested they become your friend.

Before you send me a message that says “who are you?  I don’t know you“  do a little research first.

1. Look at my info.  Perhaps I’m someone you might want to know.

2. See if we have any shared friends.  Maybe we share some cool friends.

3. Do I have a real picture? Do I look like someone who might be a good friend?

Then – take a chance.  I might bring some value into your conversations.  And if you don’t like me, you can always unfriend me.

What the heck – step outta the box once and awhile.

For years I’ve always hoped that I could just “be me”.  With the advent of the internet and working from home, that became much easier to do.

Then I decided to venture out into my community and become involved.  More people were seeing me.  A lot of folks know I’m a bit of a free spirit and feel comfortable in loose fitting clothes (hippie).

I’ve found out that there are a lot of people who don’t know me.  And first impressions are most often lasting impressions.  So I’ve added a little lipgloss, eyeliner and non-wrinkled clothes to my daily routine.  I color coordinate, put on lotion and do something with my hair. I smile a lot.

This is pretty common sense advice.  You’d be surprised how many people don’t think to do these things consistently.  A nice appearance tells a stranger that you care about yourself and that you just might care about them.

but this quick post is not about that kind of play.

It’s about the fact that I’m in a community theatre production of Our Town – a play.  Our director is 19.  The oldest person in the play is 93.  I fit right in the middle.  It’s really a community theatre – I’m one of the Franklin County Players.  Don’t ask me why I auditioned.  I’ll tell you I am cast as the town gossip – and everyone says “oh, type casting huh?”  I don’t know whether to be offended or to just agree.

Its been fun, kind of.  Its been amazing watching the other players remember the thousand lines they have.  I think I might have 20 lines myself, and I kinda know them.  The cues are the hardest part. Remember when to come in with your line, not sound like you are reciting a memorized line and then not to laugh at yourself.

Kind of like work – Remembering when to do your part, not sounding like you’re bored or uninterested and not laughing at yourself (at least until you are alone).

Everybody should be in a play.

Failing that – go out and play.  What the hey – it’s July.  Vacate.

The first thing we did was get off the interstate.  We could have driven 6 hours, non-stop along the interstate.  That would have been six hours of missing local sites and sounds.  Instead we headed across Highway 18 in Iowa.

Family Table Sheldon Iowa

We stopped at Family Table in Sheldon for breakfast.  There were a lot of cars in the parking lot and that’s always a good sign in a small town that the food is good.  Like many small towns, there were several groups meeting for coffee.  Breakfast was delicious.  On the table was a red sheet of paper listing all of the events occurring in town for the month. There was the usual fourth of July celebrations, Rotary meetings and church events.  What drew my eye was the book club meeting at Prairie Moon Books.  It was only 8:30 in the morning and I figured the book store would be closed.  I asked the waitress where it was – what the heck, let’s at least go look at it.  In a small town of under 5,000 people it’s unusual to have a bookstore.

Prairie Moon Books Sheldon Iowa

It was my great fortune to see Prairie Moon Books.  Their hours are 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Now how smart is that? They are open when people are actually in town!  There is also a coffee shop connected to their store.   They had kids books, women’s books, travel books, half priced books and oh so much more.  My mom bought a book about traveling in the 99 counties of Iowa.  I bought a stack of books.  What good is a vacation if you can’t while away a few hours reading a book?

My grandmother worked in a Hallmark store that also sold books.  At nine years of age, I got to choose a book and go to the back room and read it while she worked.  Now, I have this great love for book stores and appreciate a town that has one, especially the locally owned ones.  We left and drove around the square.  Every store front had a store in it and there were lots of people walking around and talking to each other.  How encouraging to see a small town with no For Rent signs in the downtown store front windows.  I’m going to encourage my Chamber director to contact Sheldon’s chamber director and find out some of the things they are doing to remain so vibrant.

Next stop was DeSmet South Dakota.  We have been there several times and toured the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead.  It’s a nice tour and I recommend it for

families and those interested in prairie history.  It’s one of the sites featured in 1000 Places to See Before You Die.   Find more information at www.ingallshomestead.com

We were simply hungry – it was lunch time.  The Oxbow Restaurant was on the road we were traveling and it looked like a place to stop in. We walked in and at first I worried this was going to work.  There were two people eating, one waitress and the seats had tears in them.  We sat anyway.  Upon further inspection it was clean and the menu prices were quite reasonable.  Our waitress could have been Flo.  She was johnny on the spot, took our order, brought our drinks quick and was more than willing to accommodate what we wanted.  We ordered the hot roast beef sandwich – but we wanted to share it.   She returned about 5 minutes later with TWO plates, each containing 1/2 half a hot roast beef sandwich.  And the food was excellent!

Crocheted Necklace from Woods and Things

Finally we made it to Clark, South Dakota.  Our cousin Eleanor showed us around town and we visited the local Used Clothing store.  All profits go back to the community.  I got a kick butt pair of jeans there.  We visited the local Mercantile and were reminded of how much it was like the old Woolworth’s used to be.  Woods and Things is a shop where local craftspeople sell their wares.  You can find them at 119 N. Commercial Street, phone 605-880-5861. Mom got a vase with pheasant feathers and brush grass in it as a gift for a friend, we both got crocheted necklaces as gifts for family members, and spent many minutes browsing all the unique handmade items.  It was my pleasure to support local artisans!

Clark is a town of about 1,200 people and one of the best things I found there was a little coffee shop called SS Espresso.  Not only was the Coffee Toffee frozen drink I ordered just great, so was the wifi access.  I plugged in my computer, drank coffee and ate a turnover, and worked away.  There were two older gentlemen at the next table talking about the U.S. Presidents and what they thought about each one.  You can also get a bite to eat for lunch.  I was content to be viewing my emails on a screen larger than my cell phone!

Holly Hocks in Clark SD

There’s a gentleman who hates to see trash, empty spaces and lots and he loves flowers.  He has gardened all over town.  This man plants flowers where nothing used to be. He’s his own little beautification committee.  Makes me think – this is something that can be done everywhere!  How would your block change if there were flowers where there used to be nothing?

What does this trip have to do with social media and small business? Every trip can be an opportunity to notice where people are doing things the right way.  Loved what the town of Sheldon has done for their small businesses and tourism.  Really enjoyed Clark SD and their use of locals to create things.  I saw opportunities for Debworks to help small businesses use some simple online marketing tools to further increase their business.  And I had a great time away looking at small towns with a tourist’s eye.

Crain resting in lake in SD

I saw many things we don’t have in Iowa; fields of rye, pelicans, and land that stretches for miles and miles.  We visited with friends both old and new and heard the stories of the early pioneers – the utter desolation, the winds that never stop, snow and winter so cold you’ll think you’ll die.  Yet the people of South Dakota stay.  They love their land.  They’ve adapted and grown very proud of where they live.  Isn’t that sometime we all aspire to?