Tacoma Photography

Taking great photos of your own backyard is a real gift.  Chris Anderson is more than an amazing photographer -- she has a way of capturing our region in her photos. This one of Tacoma's Glass Museum is beautiful.

See her other photos on flickr.
 mistymisschristie

Make Yourself Useful On LinkedIn

Want to help other business people and increase your reputation at the same time?  Use your expertise, experience, and judgment to answer questions on LinkedIn.  If you are marketing to businesses (b2b) this is an excellent way to connect with your customers and potential customers.  Here is a great article by Jason Falls on how to do it.  (It also has a cool phrase I hadn't heard before: "it's not rocket surgery.")

Step One
Find a category of LinkedIn Answers you have a degree of expertise in. A screen shot of the Answers page for Internet Marketing is below. At the bottom of the right column of the page you should see the orange RSS feed button. Click that to subscribe to the feed via email or  your favorite feed reader. Repeat the process for any number of other topics that make sense for your business.  Read On  at Social Media Explorer: How To Make LinkedIn Answers Part Of Your Routine.
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Startup Weekend in Olympia

Olympia, Washington is an underground center for green, responsible, CREATIVE, technology. It's time to bring it above ground.  Are you interested in attending a startup weekend in Olympia?

On the couch, a tiny dog buries his head into a blanket and shuts its eyes.
"Spanky's the only one who got to sleep," Martin says.

This group of nine entrepreneur hopefuls started less than two days ago with just an idea: an online planning and finance tool for small businesses called ProphetMargin. Now they have the website design, a business plan and a working database. And by the end of the evening, they'll have a formal mentor and a meeting planned with investors.  Read on in The Olympian.

Guerrilla Marketing or Ambush Marketing?

Great guerrilla marketing idea with just one problem -- FIFA and South Africa have rules against this marketing strategy.

They consider it ambush marketing.  The reason is that they don't want companies that have not payed for sponsorships to get free advertising.  The Olympics and other sporting events have similar rules.  In this case, South African law applies:  " the Contravention of Merchandise Marks Act."
 

FIFA ejected 36 female Netherlands fans from their World Cup match with Denmark for wearing an orange mini-dress designed by a beer company.
The dresses were made by Bavaria beer and despite the outfits containing no branding, the organizers said it was against their rules on "ambush marketing".  Read on at Yahoo! World of Sport.

Tacoma Filmmaking

We love to see Tacoma creating films from scratch.

Local filmmakers Isaac Olsen and Kurt Kendall will roll out their independent feature noir film “Quiet Shoes” at the Rialto this Saturday. Filmed on a shoestring budget in and around T-town, “Quiet Shoes” features local talent including members of Tacoma band Girl Trouble, and combines noir with wacky comedy.

Read on in the Tacoma News Tribune.

Are Clients Rationally Irrational?

Are your customers' decisions based on rational or irrational thinking? Hear some surprising answers in NPR's interview with Dan Ariely.

Hear it now on NPR site (7 minutes)

Robert Siegel talks to behavioral economist Dan Ariely about his new book, The Upside of Irrationality. The book is a follow-up to his New York Times best-seller, Predictably Irrational, in which Ariely examined a number of biases that lead all of us to make unwise decisions. This time, Ariely explores the flipside to irrationality and how it helps us achieve great things...

Photo:by Wonderlane
See info

Branding Your Business Videos

Tight branding is not just a good thing to do or a theoretical marketing concept -- branding is at the core of every good business and business idea.

To challenge your thinking on branding a new product, start with this short show.  With a panel of consultants (an advertising agency, a PR representative, two marketing managers, and Taser's founder) Donny Deutsch of The Big Idea will give you plenty to consider.

It was recorded a couple years ago,  but is now available online.

Watch segments on CNBC's blog (1-3 minutes) or for you Comcast customers, watch the whole show on your Fancast TV (45 minutes.)

Already saw the show? See how the featured business, Bug Labs, is doing since the show was recorded at their blog.