Zach Heller

Though I may continue to update this blog on a less frequent basis, I wanted to alert all of you to check out my new blog over at www.zachhellermarketing.com.

I’ve found a new home on the Squarespace platform which has allowed me to reinvigorate my passion for blogging and for marketing.  I’ll be updating the blog frequently with information about marketing, small business, etc., similar to the material that has brought you here.

I encourage you to check it out, “I” of the Consumer, and subscribe today!

Thanks.

So when I see headlines or surveys or reports that try to group bloggers into specific groups and note that there are only a few types of people who blog, it worries me that people still don’t really get it.  Blogging has been around for some time now.  It’s an established platform, not an emerging one.  People have used blogs to spread news, create buzz, sell products, tell stories, make friends, save people, raise money, and teach you how to blog.

Blogging is no longer new media.

And now this, 50 Tips for Successful Innovation.

There are a lot of people in this world who can call themselves marketers.  Marketing has been a term that has expanded to cover many facets of any business.  You can market your ideas, your business, your products, and even yourself.  Yet the word marketing is still seen by many as an extension of sales, and, therefore, a label that we try to avoid because it brings to mind the old idea of the door to door or used car salesman.  We, as marketers, have fought hard against that stigma, continually trying to redefine what marketing is.

To read the full post, click here and check out the new company, GaWrilla.

When American Express decided to target small businesses, they created OPEN.  American Express Open offered new credit card services specifically designed to give small business owners what they were looking for from a credit card.  But they didn’t stop there.

More recently, American Express created the Open Forum, a blog of sorts to offer all types of information that entrepreneurs are looking for in one easy place.  The Open Forum brings together experts from many different fields, and gives straight to the point advice on such things as hiring, investing, marketing, innovation, and saving money.  Anything a business owner would want to learn is most likely sitting there waiting to be found.

They categorize their content into 7 main headings; innovation, technology, managing, marketing, lifestyle, money, the world.  It is easy to find the information that you are looking for, or just browse to see if you find anything interesting on that particular day.

This is a genius move by American Express, as it allows them to enter the social media space with a valuable offer that is perfect for their target market.  It also connects them with experts from across the business and financial world to give credibility and valuable content.

For any small business owner out there who has not checked out what the Open Forum has to offer, I recommend doing it now.  They have done a lot of work to the website recently, and they continue to produce even more valuable articles.

Yesterday I was directed to this site.  It is a blog ranking site and one of the categories that they ranked is Innovation.  So I gave it a look.

And sitting there, amongst a number of other great blogs, some of them far better known then mine, was Be Innovation.

Some Highlights:

Overall Ranking – #48

Rank by RSS Subscribers – #9

Rank by Monthly Visitors – #18

Rank by Incoming Links – #37

Rank by Technorati – #22

Thanks for reading and getting this blog some attention.  I appreciate it each and every day.  Post by post, I’ll continue to climb the lists.

The first in the series is an interview with Dave Cochran, the product manager of the groundbreaking HP-35 calculator.  This was the first calculator that could perform all the functions of a slide rule, and it could fit in a pocket – an achievement that was incomprehensible at its time. Dave shares a lot of experiences and anecdotes about his work with Bill Hewlett and David Packard, along with stories about other team members including Steve Wozniak.

Take a moment to check them out here.

It’s June 12th, 2009, marking the one year anniversary of this blog.  A lot has happened over the past year as the theme and purpose of this blog continues to grow and get stronger.

Thank you for taking the ride with me.  I hope you will continue to read as I continue to write.  I hope you will continue to believe in real change, on every level.  We can continue to spread the word of new and innovative ideas that can affect the whole world.

Invite your friends and colleagues to join us as we move into the second year and beyond.  Subscribe to receive updates via email, or add Be Innovation to your blog reader.

I wanted to end this post with links to five of the most popular posts from my first year of writing, as well as a link back to the first post published one year ago today.  Thanks again!

1.   What Could You do with 200 Million Users
2.   From Simple to Complex and Back Again
3.   13 Ways to Make Google Adwords Work for Your Business
4.   Don’t Get Caught in the Recession Trap
5.   If You’re Selling Something, then SELL It
6.   Be Innovation (The 1st Post)

Clearly there will be much to come on the subject, but initial reports are positive.  The search engine, which was announced last week, did not get the hype that recent search engine “Cuil” got before its release, but it’s already better.

There is nothing that will really blow you away initially, but it is a solid effort all around by Microsoft to get back into the search game.  The results are good for most every search that I tried this morning.  And comparing the results for the same searches in Google varies, sometimes Bing was actually better (more accurate).

Some features that stood out to me include the recent searches tool, a video playback for all video searches, and an enhanced local search with one click map and directions.  In addition, I think the best feature is within specific categories, the sidebar becomes a tool to narrow down your search. For example, if you search local bars in New York City, you can narrow down searches based on price, neighborhood, ratings, style, etc.

Bing is currently a trending topic on Twitter, and most of the comments seem to be pretty positive.  Here is an initial review from TechCrunch, which also discusses how positive the early feedback from users has been.

All of this is before Microsoft has spent a reported $100 Million to advertise the search engine.  We will see what the campaign is all about soon enough, but the word out of the Microsoft camp is that they are going straight at Google.  Time will tell if that is a smart strategy or not, but Microsoft has to be happy by what they have seen already this morning.

Having said all that, Bing is by no means the answer to the question of where is online search headed.  It’s strange that Microsoft would invest so much in what many consider to be the end of the current search era. With companies like Google, Yahoo, and Twitter investing in the future of search (real-time solutions), Microsoft almost seems to be jumping into a game in the 4th quarter.

Nonetheless, give the new service a try.  If you have used it already, let me know what you think in the comments below.

YoungEntrepreneur

For me, it’s an easy one.  I want to pick someone who built something from scratch, someone who challenged the system, and someone who continued to innovate all the way to the top.  And though it may seem somewhat obvious, I would not change my answer for anything in the world.

It’s Steve Jobs.

I have discussed the lifelong innovator before on this blog, and for good reason.  As an avid enthusiast of all things creative, I have to appreciate the work that he and Steve Wozniak did in creating Apple.  They saw something that no one else did in the area of computing.  They did what many people, even people in the industry, said was not possible and not “profitable”.  They created a personal computer that people could actually use.  And not only that, people wanted to use it.

Since then, Jobs has continued his journey with Apple at the speed of light, battling with Microsoft to gain market share over PC’s, adding the iPod to everybody’s list of must have gadgets, and successfully launching a smart phone with AT&T.

Through it all, Steve has fought his own battle with cancer.  I have great respect for Steve Jobs, and think that spending a few hours picking his brain on topics ranging from managing a growing company, to brainstorming new ideas, to successfully launching products, would be a great experience for any would be entrepreneur.

If you had to choose, who would you want to meet?  Share it with me in the comments section below, or hop on over to the real poll at YoungEntrepreneur.com and add your answer there.