Things have been pretty quiet on the Bold Blog these days.
While the blog has been quiet as-of-late, behind the scenes, we don’t remember the last time quiet even came by for a visit.
In addition to helping our wonderful clients and growing our company, here is a quick up-date on the low-down as to what’s been happening lately:
Jan 10 - We moved into a new office at 5 Points in Downtown Durham. The Historic A Penny Building is at 111 E. Chapel Hill St. - We will post some pics of the new space-in-progress soon.
February 1 - Nathania, realizing her full and unbridled passion for social media, has struck out to follow her dream and solidify her place in the internet archive as the Social Media Butterfly that she is. - While we are sad to lose her, we wish her all the luck in the world and have high expectations for her.
February 21 - Laura Cunningham, our Director of Client Services, and my right hand, brought her first child into the world, a little boy named Jona. Laura will be coming back from maternity leave in May. (thank goodness)
March 3 - My wife gave birth to our second child, Hunter. Read more about his arrival on my personal blog, AdamSchultz.com.
Starting in May (if all goes well), We will begin some free on-line marketing clinics at our downtown office that will be open to the Triangle business community. Click Here for details.
We have a lot more change coming down the pipe. Keep your eyes peeled for a new Bold Interactive site as well as a couple of new divisions: Bold Design and Bold Local.
Stay tuned as we continue to grow the company, help our clients succeed and continue to fulfill our promise of making the internet better one client at a time.
Since there are so many writers that are friends of this blog, I wanted to let you know about a great blog post from copywriting genius Michael Fortin.
How to Hook (More) Copywriting Prospects teaches writers (and all freelancers) how to position themselves in the marketplace in order to land more work. Most of this stuff you probably already put into practice for your clients, so now it’s time to apply these same practices for yourself.
It’s like the blogging version of Biggest Loser for internet marketers.
Oh, and there’s now more than 10 people.
Here’s how it works:
Beginning tomorrow, we start counting down the pounds and blogging about it (visit my fat fighting blog). The male and female with the biggest losses will be voted on by the general public. Whoever wins has the proceeds from sponsorship go to the charity of their choice.
My charity is the Thyroid Cancer Survivor’s Association, a volunteer-run organization which has been a huge benefit to me personally since my diagnosis in February 2003 (That’s right, I’m a 5 year survivor in a couple weeks!).
So who else is fighting the fat? Only Donna Fontenot (the brainchild of this whole operation), Jennifer Laycock, Debra Mastaler, Aaron Wall, Jim Boykin, Simon Heseltine, David Wallace, Ben Cook, Scottie Claiborne, and Jeff Quipp. Seriously, I don’t know how my B-List cult classic blogger name got tied in with all of these A-listers, but I’m not complaining.
I have a Twitter account set up just for the occasion. Follow me at Twitter.com/natfightsfat. The widget for that account is on the sidebar of my blog.
And if you see me eating any cookies - slap me on the wrist!
I blogged on Monday that I’m joining 9 SEOs in an epic battle to begin this Friday, February 1st.
Here is another titillating detail:
It’s a contest where the proceeds go to Charity. If you want to be a sponsor, let me know. There are many levels of sponsorship. And let’s just say that a BIG NAME search engine is one of the sponsors.
Today I received an email informing me that someone purchased a gift from my Amazon Baby Registry!
Two Problems:
1. I’m not pregnant. (That’s not a problem for me - just for Amazon.)
2. I never created an Amazon Baby Registry.
I was curious, so I signed in to view my registry. Lo and behold, there was no registry.
Here are my theories:
1. Amazon is having some serious database issues.
2. Amazon is hoping I’ll create a Baby Registry because I created a wedding registry.
#2 would be highly stupid. First, they would be informing about a gift that in fact was never purchased from a registry that was never created. Then they would be assuming that I’m trying to get pregnant after my wedding. And you know what they say about people who assume.
Nevermind the fact that some couples are trying to get pregnant and maybe they’re having complications or miscarriages. (Just to be clear, we’re not trying to get pregnant. Josh has 2 kids who now call me mom and they’re plenty for us, thank you!)
So it must be #1. I mean, Amazon would never try something like #2 (would they?).
If you’re serious about social media marketing, then spending 10 minutes a day on StumbleUpon is crucial to the foundation of your strategy.
StumbleUpon puts more weight on the actions of those who use its service regularly. So pressing that Stumble button, as well as the thumbs up or thumbs down AND leaving comments on pages will help any pages you submit to SU be seen by more people.
A big Stumble can get you far better traffic than a big Digg could ever hope to. Last year, we had a post see traffic of 24,000 because of StumbleUpon. The effect of that still lasts until today as I’m still seeing new people comment on the blog as well as follow me on Twitter and other related social networking activities.
So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading this post and go Stumbling! Then report back with your success - and that’s an order!
Over the weekend, I had to stop following a Twitter user because they used the platform to have lengthy one-on-one discussions with other individual Tweets.
This is the equivalent of 2 people dominating the conversation at a dinner party - it’s mindnumbing for the rest of us.
If you find yourself engaging in a good conversation with just one other person, use the private message function. From there, you can exchange information to send emails or messages through an IM client.
There’s a new Mac v. PC commercial running on TV and I don’t know who created and approved this latest one for Apple, but they end up practically endorsing Microsoft! Watch for yourself what the Microsoft guy says at the end:
Did you notice that?
“You can’t eject me. Where would I go?”
That’s right. Apple can’t eject Microsoft. They were making fun of the setting for their ad, but it turned out to be a big Freudian slip.
Two Mondays ago, my husband was laid off. Ever since, I’ve been helping him with his resume and cover letters as well as the job search and networking. I’ve been able to draw on my vast experience of previous bouts of unemployment as well as my online marketing career.
My husband’s main skill is programming custom applications in AutoCAD. Sure, there’s plenty of jobs for AutoCAD designers or drafters, but programming the software using its API is a different ballgame. Let’s just say it’s a niche market.
LinkedIn is turning out to be a godsend. We’ve been able to find recruiters from the companies that Josh has been applying to and he’s sent them emails and added them as contacts. This is especially true of Autodesk, the company that makes AutoCAD. Companies like Autodesk can be difficult to get into because they have amazing benefits (how does a sabbatical every four years sound?) and a hot product. Since we live in NC and not in San Rafael, California, it’s difficult to network, as you might imagine. But social media breaks down the location barriers and allows my husband to contact recruiters directly, something that was previously a lot harder to do.
But without Twitter, we wouldn’t have known just how competitive it is to get hired by Autodesk. I’ve been Twittering about this whole situation, and my friend Donna Fontenot mentioned that she used to work at Autodesk, something I hadn’t known about her. The funny thing is, that despite that I’m a fan of her blog and she’s a true friend to this blog, it was Twitter that facilitated our conversation about Autodesk.
Going back to LinkedIn, my husband was also able to find out from a recruiter that a CAD job at Polo Ralph Lauren (in their facilities management department) was filled. This came as a huge disappointment to me as I had hopes of free clothes.
These same techniques can be applied to Facebook and really any social networking site. Blogging about your industry is also a tremendous way to raise your profile and demonstrate those all-important written communication abilities.
The next time you face a job search, make social media your networking “wing man.”
April 5, 2008 By Adam Schultz 
Posted in Company Information, Bold Projects, Be Bold, Marketing Clinics 
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Over the weekend, I had to stop following a Twitter user because they used the platform to have lengthy one-on-one discussions with other individual Tweets. 
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