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So often, brilliant advertising and marketing people that otherwise would create campaigns that would entertain us and motivate us are stifled by their bosses and choose to allow themselves to spend their career stifled. Sure, they create better than average crap, but it’s still crap for crap companies and crap people.

They become afraid to be brilliant. Where before they were full of piss and vinegar ready to take on the world, some jackass decided that conservative was better and mediocre was good enough. I’ve seen it all the way through my career and I’ve seen myself stifle great ideas, because I knew they would be beat down or suppressed and it just wasn’t worth the effort. I also often stayed safe.

I’m not afraid to be brilliant or crazy or successful, but I’ve let myself be stifled at different times. I am determined to move forward being uncompromisingly brilliant – always.

Make your choice with everything you do to be brilliant rather than become one of those “marketing and advertising people” that contributes to the degradation of commerce.

I watched the great documentary Art & Copy about some of the most brilliant in the world of advertising that still work to make it artistic and inspiring and entertaining. They have it a little easier, because clients come to them to be brilliant, but even in an incredibly boring marketplace, you can be a brilliant and creative marketer.

If your first reaction to your new idea is to cringe, then explore it. You could be on a good track to get you to the winner. I love the story in this movie about “Got Milk“. The bad grammar would have killed that in places where I’ve worked, but it was simplistic brilliance and beautifully articulated and it worked. Even more impressive are the women that were allowed to express themselves when they created the Nike “if you let me play” ads for both TV and print. They inspired countless women and girls to just do whatever it was that inspired them.

Below is the trailer and some examples of brilliance.

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Regular, deep interaction with your customers gives you the information you need to make powerful decisions about what products to roll out, what features to include, and in what format it will best be received. Fan/customer/prospect engagement makes all marketing activities more efficient.

Source: Personal Branding

25. Try adding “Please ReTweet” to your tweets to maximize retweets. Sometimes people just need a reminder to share your content. Research shows that that users who add “Please ReTweet” generate 4x more retweets that those who dont. Experiment with it on your own account, and see if it works to expand the reach of your content.

26. Create and follow Twitter lists in your industry. Create a Twitter list for your industry or your company, share the lists you create with your followers, and follow other Twitter lists you find valuable. Creating a list can help solidify your thought leadership and emphasize your companys transparency.

via The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Expert Twitter Marketing.

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Warrillow | Weekly News

In this day and age, everyone who owns a company has a website, right? Surprisingly, less than half of small business owners have an independent website representing their business, according to a recent Warrillow study. Amidst all the discussion and appeal of social networks and iPhones, it’s easy to miss the fact that most business owners have not yet established a basic presence on the internet.

Hiring a 5th employee appears to be the tipping point for a small business owner creating a website; website ownership for businesses with 5-99 employees approaches 70%. Small businesses with one to four employees are evenly split on the factor, while only one-third of sole proprietors have a website for their business.