*But Were Afraid to Ask."Before we take the advice of anyone about blogging matters it is worthwhile to remember one vital - and wonderful - fact: Blogging should be the simplest and most straightforward thing we do.I've never blogged before and my friend told me that the first time can be painful; is this true?Blogging is actually quite simple.

The great thing about social media is that it allows you to connect with so many people in so many different ways almost all the time. The bad thing about social media is that it allows you to connect with so many people in so many different ways almost all the time.When I was in grade school at St.

According to Kraft's new CMO, Mary Beth West, "Great marketing drives business. If it doesn't, it doesn't really matter."Forget for just a moment that Kraft's top marketing posts have experienced more turnovers in the past year than a Hungarian bakery; Mary Beth West is a proven asset.

At the risk of offending my SEO/SEM friends, I have a bone to pick with the state of search.Last night my daughter and I invested a solid hour searching online (on two separate computers) for a resource selling "down fill" for a winter jacket she is making.

[Shameless self-promotion alert: my son, Matt, who is presently boarding a jet for England to participate in the Euro launch of Gears of War 2, is an employee of Epic Games]Sometimes I feel like that kid at the playground standing on the wrong side of the fence, watching the championship baseball game instead of playing in it.

Thanks to the business I am in, thoughts (some normal, some less so) about the impact of marketing and media constantly fill my mind.

According to ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations), the average weekday circulation of 507 American daily newspapers was only 36.2 million during a six-month period in 2008. This number represents a drop of 4.6% from a year earlier.On the flip side, the NAA (Newspaper Association of America) reports that usage of newspaper Web sites grew nearly 16% in the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same period last year.

My dad was the very definition of a troublemaker. He reveled like a child in the business of mischief, smiling from ear to ear as he picked and poked and prodded you into an argument. But to his credit, he always knew when to stop."Okay, that's enough," he'd say as tempers began to flare.

Just last week I was reading the results of the latest Nielsen Shopper Modality Study.According to the report, "Consumers approach different categories of consumer packaged goods with different mindsets, and marketers that understand and leverage these can enhance their products' performance."David Parma, global head of Nielsen Consumer Research warns that CPG (consumer packaged goods) marketers "don't want to get it wrong in the fleeting nan-second of purchase decision.

Paul Verna, Senior Analyst, reported in eMarketer yesterday (October 16) that blogging has become mainstream. Here's what he says:Blogging has become so pervasive and influential that the lines between blogging and the mainstream media have disappeared.At first glance, this looks really important.