We shoot ourselves in the foot with alarming regularity. There isn’t a day that goes by, especially on the internet, where I don’t hear someone listing out a litany of reasons why they aren’t reaching their potential, or why they haven’t pursued their dream career, or written the book, or started the blog. I’ve been there. We all have. So, here’s the ones that have reared their heads in my  world over the years, that I hear echoed in so many other people’s remarks, and that I work every day to kill dead. And today, I’m calling for you to quit it. MORE >>

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. ~   H. Lovecraft, Author. How are you learing about social media? Perhaps through books, conferences or workshops. Just as valuable is the way knowledge was transferred when blogs hit the business scene. from peer-to-peer in online discussions. . Just Once Crowd Sourced Question is a Diva Marketing series where the community shares their insights on a specific social media issue. In doing that, we can help alleviate some of the scary fears. In celebration of Halloween. . MORE >>

Reed Hastings , the CEO of Netflix, has had a rough year. First Netflix hired actors in Canada to pretend they were excited customers. The problem? Canada was dying to get Netflix so the anticipation and excitement was already there and actors weren’t necessary. But the bigger issue was those actors were talking to media, as if they were real customers. And, maybe they were, but that’s not why they were there. When found out, Netflix had a bit of a crisis on their hands. Then, in July, Netflix announced a price hike. Overnight. Via email. make my living speaking on digital trends. MORE >>

I found a cool tool to subscribe to the RSS feeds of my favorite Google Plussers with Plus Feed. Just type in the profile number of a user at the end of the URL  [link]. So if I want to get all of Jaana Nystrom’ s plus posts in my Google Reader, I’d just put here profile number at the end of the URL in the address bar and – voila – a page is produced with a bunch of XML code. Grab the URL of that page and plug it into your Google Reader (Add a Subscription button near top left). Maybe the Alltop team can create a Google+ erati for us. No reason to panic. MORE >>

Today’s guest post is written by David Horne. You want to build an incredible brand. This is one reason you became a marketing professional or started a company in the first place. Who doesn’t want to create the next Google, Apple, Nike, or Coke? Who doesn’t want to drive an incredible brand, one people love, that affects lives, and changes the world? We are no doubt in the Great Age of the Brand.” – Tom Peters. Before you can build a brand that has market ubiquity, fosters loyalty, and promotes advocacy, the proper foundation must be set. That foundation is credibility. MORE >>