Downtown Memphis is the place to be July 29th, 2011

I'll be at the Sade and John Legend concert tonight. If you don't have tickets there is something for you to do tonight as well in Downtown Memphis:

It's Trolley Night! beginning at around 4:30 you can hop on the trolley and ride through the South Main Arts District for free.99. In other words you don't have to pay a dime and the doors will be open at each individual store, boutique and art gallery. If you haven't taken part in a Trolley Night, what are you waiting for?

 Also in Downtown Memphis there will be a grand opening:

July 29, 2011

Kpresha Boutique Grand Opening

323 S. Main

4:30pm

Get up, get out and do something in Memphis tonight. I'll be in Smooth Operator mode.

That's Not What It's For: Another Facebook Article



Like John Coffey, I couldn't hep it



Common mistakes that come with the comment "That's not what that's for," are all over the place. When you decide to work on a car and grab a flathead instead of a phillips you hear, "That's not what that's for." When you're getting ready to brush your teeth, if you were raised in a house that didn't have much money, and you grab the Arm & Hammer because you're out of toothpaste, and your kid looks at you like, "WTF?" You hear it then. When you're in the bed and you slip up and hit the wrong.... okay nevermind, you get the point. That's Not What It's For is so common that often no one realizes when this is really the case.

Yesterday an interesting thing happened on Facebook. A conversation was started that generated a ton of likes on seperate Facebook walls. The conversation began with this quote: Clean out your Facebook closet. There are people doing incredible work, but you can't see it because there is too much garbage on your wall. Also, if someone is doing something that looks like it took time to do, is artistic, is positive, or is thinking out of the box... make a comment. Honestly, you never know how that might help a person throughout that day. Big shout out to all the people pursuing various dreams. 

Is Facebook Really Good For Small Biz?

Social Media, for those who aren't keeping up, consists of any form of media based in technology that allows you to maintain contact with people at anytime you feel like reaching out and touching someone. The old adage from the phone company has never been more true. Social Media: Twitter, Tumblr, Myspace, Youtube, Facebook and now Google+ all allow their users to drop in at anytime and pick up on a conversation taking place in a group, on a wall, through a Tweet and now in a circle (Google+) In marketing circles having a Facebook page is now a required form of guerilla marketing that will allow you to reach more people simply based on the sheer numbers on these various forms of social media. I've been thinking lately though, is this really a good thing for small biz? I mean, you can post to Facebook and get an immediate bump in web traffic. You can even advertise for free, but with the fact that so many people are fighting to be seen in Social Media there is a problem taking place that has to be rectified by the various outlets. While Social Media was the place to go to build a following many small biz people are finding themselves utilizing Facebook as a primary source of information for their fans, followers, and potential clients.

Now this is not a problem, but it is. See the time a person invests into getting traffic to their Facebook page pays off for a company like the NBA, or ESPN, or AmEx. Why? These brands have customer loyalty, a following and the ability to drive people to their sites through extensive marketing in traditional media forms. No matter what the NBA posts on Facebook, they will have visitors who go directly to their websites. Their foundation was not established through the various forms of social media. Let's focus on Facebook. Facebook holds a person's attention and the short blasts of information, the ability to hold discourse and to share pictures in a central location for the common person and the business person is too attractive. It is so attractive that let's say Small Biz guy A posts something about his company, chances are that the people they expect to visit their webpage will only look at it on Facebook. Facebook uses the App Networked Blogs and in all actuality the person remains on Facebook where the blog/website is presented in a frame.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson

What is Rework? Rework is a book on rethinking what it is to be a small business person. The book was written by the founders of 37signals. Real quick, what I just did by inserting their link into this blog post has helped to increase their SEO. Why is this important in a book review? Well not really a book review... but a thank you to the writers of Rework. SEO is the search engine optimization. In the world of the internet in order for your business to be found in the search results of Google people have to share your link. This is placed in some funky program in Google's search engine and the more links to your site, the higher your site is listed when someone searches for certain information. This is important to me because I have found that through research and all kinds of stuff, my site ranks very low. Damn you people who don't understand this!

Memphis Hi-Lites: Memphis Redbirds

Redbirds Park in Downtown Memphis

My family recently went back to our home state of California. We lived in a resort that was about a half a mile from the beach in Oceanside. We were only 45 minutes from California Adventures and Disneyland and we visited both. I went shopping at the border near Mexico, visited my alma mater San Diego State University (which has added an underground trolley station-something that is probably ruining GPAs all over campus) and then I went to eat at Sombreros, Pat and Oscars and Sammy's Woodfired Pizza. I stood in the Pacific and watched my son play in the ocean and I held my daughter as the June gloom began to recede and the sun was breaking through over the horizon. I felt the sand shift under my feet and I realized that I missed San Diego. I missed the idea of going to Julian for apple pie and ice cream. I missed the beach. When we got back on the road to come home, I realized that I was returning to a place that was going to be hot and for the most part angry. In my head, Memphis was not a choice as much as it was an agreement. Especially after being back in Cali, Memphis just seemed... blah.