Best.Ad.Ever

This is the best example of how to use an ad to brand a company I have ever seen.

Issuu - free PDF-to-Flash online publishing

http://issuu.com
From the site: Issuu - You Publish
Issuu is the place for quality publications: Magazines, catalogs, documents, and stuff you'd normally find on print. It's the place where you become the publisher: Upload a document, it's fast, easy, and totally free. Find and comment on thousands of great publications. Join a living library, where anyone finds publications about anything and share them with friends.

After the holidays, I am going to give this a try for some of the nonprofits with which I work. One can also build a library of bookmarked publications on the site, which sounds pretty interesting as well. The testimonials are compelling.

Mashable - all that's new on the web

I love this site. Mashable provides insight into this moment's Zeitgeist for people who cannot spell zeitgeist, like me. Lots of articles about Twitter, iphones, Facebook, social networking, online marketing, startups, which companies offer good internships, and more. The stories are in plain English, with limited geek speak. They're thought-provoking, useful, and interesting - targeted to twenty-somethings, but that is part of the ....errrr....zeitgeist.

The Wayback Machine - Website, Music, Book Archives

From their site:
The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections.

Sentient Customer Service by Phone

http://gethuman.com/ and http://get2human.com/. The first is by Paul English, a guy who is the CTO of kayak.com, my favorite travel site. The second is by Walt Tetschner, a friend of his who maintained gethuman.com for awhile but moved on amicably to build get2human.com. Both have lots of links to get you to real people when you need customer support,. not automated phone trees.

Cool Tools: My Favorite Christmas Shopping Site

I may be a marketer by trade, but I am curious by nature. I am also surrounded by beloved friends and family - engineers and gadget geeks all - who intuitively understand how things work much better than I ever will. So, I use Cool Tools to keep up with all things useful and ingenious, inexpensive and opulent, simple and complex. I use the site to surprise the geeks in my life with presents that help muddy the waters about how cool I actually am.

Kevin Kelly, the site's guru, co-founded the Hackers' Conference, and, unlike me, he is inarguably cool and eclectic. He has been affiliated with Wired magazine since its inception, was with the Well back in the day, and sits on a variety of boards, including The Long Now Foundation, which seeks to take a long view of history. In that pursuit, it has purchased a mountain top in Nevada to house a 10,000 year library and clock.

On Cool Tools, he finds and reviews (or posts reviews others have authored) about an amazing array of useful stuff ranging from simple screwdrivers and the latest incarnation of Sculpey sculpture clay to the best explanation of relativity and a guide on building an underground dwelling for $50 and up. Eclectic? You bet'cha. Useful? Indisputably. A nice place to get lost for a few hours and emerge with gifts for curious and outdoorsy friends and family - and a few new interests to explore yourself? I highly recommend it.

Check out your Google page rank

The quick free link of the day? A site to check your site's popularity, keyword popularity and more. It loads so slowly it timed out, but it's worth a quick peek.

Local Denver business NewsGator offers award-winning products for extending your online presence

NewsGator
They tout business value through social computing. I will take a look at some of their products (the ones targeted to small businesses and individuals) in the near future.

For developers, they offer the NewsGator Widget site.

Getting started with Feedburner

http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/

Feedburner enables you to expand the reach of your website or blog. People can subscribe to it and receive updates by email, through a news reader, or via a web portal like iGoogle or My YAHOO. You can also deliver your content as widgets for cell phones and other mobile devices.

Signing up for Feedburner is a snap. Yes, it is owned by Google, and yes, I think that is nothing but good. But those who dislike Google will likely want to use digg or some other service.

More free images

Morguefile.com offers a wide variety of user-provided images. The authors provide guidance on how you may use their pictures. The site is undergoing a revision, and as of December 4, we could not gain access to the beta site. That should change soon, and there are images available in the interim.

http://morguefile.com/

Open clip art: freely usable, user-contributed clip art

http://openclipart.org
What a nifty idea - create an archive of user-cntributed clip art free to users. Graphics have to be public domain images according to Creative Commons. You can look at images, review images and, if you are so inclined, post your own images (obviously not someone else's work).

Guidelines are here.

Randy Pausch, a true Tigger, has died

The professor who gave the Last Lecture to a packed auditorium and, eventually, six million viewers around the world has passed away from pancreatic cancer. I feel the same way I did when my grandfather died. GrandPops was so vibrant and healthy and full of life that I felt sure if anyone could live forever, it would be him. Randy Pausch had a wonderful life, made some spectacular choices when faced with a short runway at the end, and embodied what a professor and a father should be. His wife and children are in my thoughts. His page is unreachable at the moment. He chronicled his vital signs in an utterly straightforward manner as the disease progressed, and retained his remarkable upbeat voice throughout.

Randy Pausch talked about being a Tigger versus an Eeyore in life, and I think that is a wonderful metaphor. Now I am off to download Alice, the programming language for children he stewarded, to introduce my son to a new skill in Professor Pausch's honor - and have fun doing it.

PS Here is his lecture on time management, which he seemed to think was going to be his legacy before all "this" happened.

Maid Brigade of Denver does everything well

Maid Brigade is the service for those of us who have to clean up BEFORE the housekeepers get here. We've been out of town for most of the previous month -- except for a party for my now-ten-year-old son and the days I waited for the Sears guy. My house is a mess.

A messy house does not usually bother me that much, but also have company coming tomorrow. Since my clothes dryer has been out of service for ten days, I am frantically doing laundry, and my house was utterly disorganized when they arrived. Now it sparkles and everything is neat.

Maid Brigade teams are conscientious, polite, experienced, and very nice.

They call the day before to confirm a two hour window of arrival, and they send surveys or leave cards after asking how the service was.

They do things I don't expect, like clean encrusted detergent off of the pour spout on my clothes washer.

They use 'green' products that are safe for children and pets and gentle on those with allergies, like my husband.

They ask me to walk through the house and make sure everything is satisfactory.

I *love* these guys - they do everything right.

Maid Brigade of Denver

Local	(303) 369-6243
Fax	(303) 496-6243

3435 S Yosemite St Ste 100
Denver, CO 80231

Norman from A&E knows his stuff

If you ever need your Sears appliances repaired, call Norman from A&E in Colorado Springs.

1. He called ahead and let me know when he would arrive, and then he arrived on time.
2. He fixed my dryer in half an hour.
3. He found enough small change in the lint area that I can take Nic for a steak dinner tonight.
4. He offered to de-oderize my washing machine.
5. He told me the ratio for front loading washers to top loading is 3:1, so I should not be able to overload my front loader. (I elect not to take that as a challenge, but it contradicts the last guy to visit, who told me to run small loads.)
6. He told me the phone support team should always be able to see the routing and send the tech a message.

It is entirely possible he is the repair guy who stood me up before, but I choose not to believe that. My dryer is fixed, Norman is wonderful, and this story is at an end, with a happy ending. I am still not going to buy any more Sears appliances, but at least the one I have is fixed.

It is 11:00 and "Norman" from Sears just called

He is from Colorado Springs, and he says this is not his normal territory. He added he had a note that said I had called -- "a couple of times," heh - to check on my scheduled time. I am the next house on his list. Glorious. It's likely a real, live repair person will be at my house in the next hour or so.

Call #11 to Sears customer service: "Michael" has helpful information!!

8:26. By the way, they ask you to take a short customer service survey to let them know how they are doing. I took it last night.

8:26: ...please hold
8:27: ...please hold
8:28: ...please hold
8:29: ...please hold
I tell "Alex" I need to talk to someone who can see the routing for my service call today. He says, a little reproachfully, that he will forward me to the "correct" department. He is gone before I can ask him what that is.

"Michael" picks up. I tell him I need to know where I am on my technician's route. He asks me for my phone number, checks whatever he checks, and tells me I am #4 on the schedule and the repairman is estimated to arrive at 2:00.

WOW. An estimate. This feels good. Thanks, Michael.

Sears bad customer service, call #10, day 11

I called at 8:18 this morning, was on hold until 8:24, and was abruptly disconnected without ever talking to a human.

Sears puts the cuss in customer service - day 10

Tonight I spoke with Marco of Sears' truly, putridly, execrably bad customer service. As you'll recall, ol' Bob with the Texas twang told me that if I called the night before service was scheduled, anyone on the Sears phone support team would be able to see the routing and tell me what number I would be in line. Kai also affirmed that when she told me she would call me back after 6:00, when she could see the routing. Of course, she never called back and anything Sears phone reps say is suspect, but I decide to press on.

Alas, Marco denied that he could see the routing. Senor Marco, of Sears' incredibly cavalier and cruddy customer service, told me that he could only commit to the technician being here between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. When I mildly inquired why two other people told me he would be able to see the routing, Marco told me that "In really weird cases we can do that. But,normally, we can't see the routes."

I asked if he was in "kitchen," since Bob implied he was in a special group. Marco says "I am in phone service. That is all there is."

I politely asked for customer relations. Marco informed me that they closed two hours ago. Now, when I called last week, I spoke to customer service at 8:20 p.m. Apparently, their hours have changed.

I say, "So, you cannot see the routing, and there is no way to escalate my call so I might be able to narrow this down?" According to Marco, there is nothing I - or he - can do.

Perhaps Sears' support does have new hours. Perhaps Marco is just riffing, because there is clearly no script for Sears' woefully decrepit customer service.

I have to admit, I love the "we can only see the routing in really weird cases" line. That is surreal both for its lack of logic and the utter disdain for me, the soon-not-to-be-a-Sears customer.

One week and eight calls later, no repairman has darkened my door

I called Sears at 4:20 p.m. today to see what the status of my repair was. They've changed their login procedure so it took me two calls to get through. Now when you call and say "repair" it asks you if you want to know what time your repairman is coming. If you reply "yes," it will tell you your repair job is scheduled between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. So, since I already knew that and there were 23 minutes until my window expired, I had to call back.

On the second call, I was forwarded to "Randy." He told me that the repairman was at site six and I was site seven. He hastened to add that he did not know how long it would take the repairman to get through at site six. I asked him why I was last on the list yesterday and last again today. (Perhaps those who complain are booted to the end of the line - at this point, I'd believe anything.) He said he did not know, but he did inform me that the repairman had two more stops after mine, which mean there are two other unfortunates with spiraling blood pressure and non-working Sears appliances on the Front Range tonight.

I explained to Randy that, just like yesterday, I had to go pick my son up from camp and so I would not be here when the mythological Sears repairman arrived. I told him that we would have to reschedule since I had plans. He told me that the repairman might appear any time, which, by implication, means I'd have to leave my son in camp until the repair was complete. Unlikely.

I asked again to change the appointment, and he told me he would have to send me to the "clothes dryer" department. That was another new wrinkle in the endless hunt for the mythological repairman to honor the worthless extended warranty. So, off I went into hold land.

This time, I apparently landed in North America somewhere near Texas, and I spoke with a retired guy named "Bob." He had a reassuring twang and a folksy way of calming down irate customers like myself. He told me that if I would just hang on, the repairman would arrive. No can do - I love my son, and don't want to pay late fees to the camp for a lackadaisical Sears repairman who is apparently entranced with site 6 each day.

Bob then said the repairman could come back after I picked my son - late tonight. Now that is new - why was that not on the table last night, when I did not have plans? I had to turn it down tonight, because I did have plans, and, unlike the nonexistent Sears repairman who may never visit my house, I honor my commitments.

So, Bob offered to send him tomorrow. I said no, I had pre-existing commitments I was no longer willing to cancel for the whimsical Sears repairman. Ditto Monday. So, Tuesday, we will begin again. The same repairman - I did ask for another, but was turned down- will come out to my house between --- all together now -- 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. I will get a call narrowing the time frame down the night before. The technician will call the morning of to make sure we have a firm time. Oh, Bob. You had me going with that down home accent, but you're selling the same KoolAid as the rest.

I patiently explained how my very recent experience differed from his idealistic outline. Bob insists that the technicians can see the routing the night before. I said that may be true for some, but I could give him the names of the ones who could not, both in line management and in customer relations. He was puzzled, he said, since he had old-timers familiar with the system calling him starting about seven every night to ask him when they could expect their repairs the next day. He added all he could tell them was what number they were, but that gave them enough of a general idea that they could plan their day.

So, if you are silly enough to buy Sears appliances after reading all of this, and you somehow decide that an extended warranty makes more sense than lighting your money on fire and enjoying the glow, call Bob in "Kitchen" when things inevitably go sideways and your repairman is delayed by the desperate housewife at house 6. Bob says you cannot ask for him, but Sears folks say you cannot do lots of things - and the things they say you can do never materialize. So, ask for Bob and give him my regards if you get through.

Other complaints about Sears' bad customer service

Since I am stuck at home, I thought I'd Google "Sears bad customer service." There are 39 stories that use that phrase, from sites like ripoffreport, blogasm, epinions, and my3cents.com.

Shockingly Bad Customer Service - Appliance Repair - My Home
Posted By: Darwyn on My3cents.com on 4/22/2008; Location: CA

More Bad Customer Service: Sears Seriously S**ks June, 2008

This article claims the individual tried to call Sears' CEO and was told he has neither voice mail nor email. Their issue is that they ordered an item online and were sent a damaged floor model. The hoops they're jumping through are much more frustrating than my relatively small issue.

They provide an Executive Customer Service number: 1-800-549-4505. Someone says in a follow up post that Sears' CEO has been ousted.

Sears customer service information from an employee (from 2004) and a complaint from a customer about the relentless calls to extend the warranty Location: CA

(Incidentally, we have extended warranties on all our Sears appliances. That was clearly a mistake)

In fairness, here is a positive story about Sears' customer service, although the theme seems to be keep going until you get to the right executive to fix your problem.

I think this guy sums it up, though. Here is a teaser:

"What really sets Sears apart, however, is their ability to be so consistently bad at customer service up and down the line. Recall that at this point I have had bad service from a service technician, a saleswoman, a manager, and a customer service rep. But Sears was just getting warmed up."

Sears brand, the old reliable, is certainly not what it used to be.

Sears bad customer service, part four

It is 8:20 in the morning. I forwarded my home phone to my cell while I took our son to camp. Unsurprisingly, Sears did not call as promised first thing this morning.

"Lloyd" takes my information again. I am intrigued that their process requires me to give my name, phone and address every time I speak with them. He asks me for my zip code and informs me helpfully that I live in Castle Rock, Colorado.

He sends a message to the technician telling him I have called six times and asking him to contact me. We shall see what transpires today. I did, against my better judgment, cancel all my appointments today, because I have to get this clothes dryer fixed.

Sears bad customer support, part three

The manager did not call, so it is now 8:10 and I am calling customer support again. The automated customer service system told me I was asking about the appointment scheduled from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. Uh, I guess so.

I spoke with Ellie and asked for customer relations.

8:10...Please wait...
8:11...Please wait...
8:12...Please wait...
8:13...Please wait...
8:14...Angelina answers. She says she cannot see the routing to see when the technician will be here. She asked if I could stay home tomorrow from 8:00 until 5:00. I told her I could not cancel my business appointments at 8:00 at night, and that I did not have a lot of faith that the repairman was going to show up. I added that I had asked Kia to find out if the technician could be here between 2:00 and 5:00 when I would be here. She asked if I could wait until someone called me first thing in the morning to tell me when the repairman would arrive (sound familiar?). I told her that was the fourth time someone promised to call me from Sears and I had little faith I would receive a call.

She said that all they could do was email the service person. (I am sure the support center is not located in Denver) So I cannot contact the local technician directly, and customer service cannot contact the local technician directly.

So, at 8:26, the sagae for today is at an end. The support guy is probably finished with dinner at his house, ignoring his email, and enjoying a cold one. Tomorrow, I suspect I will begin the battle to get my worthless Sears warranty refunded and find a competent, responsive local repair person who communicates with his customers. In the meantime, there are wet clothes strewn all over my house ,and my opinion of Sears, a company where I used to really love to shop, is severely diminished.

Sears update: technician cancelled appointment, no one called

So, I called Sears at 4:30 to see when the repair person was coming. The customer support person said. "He is running late so he canceled your appointment." I asked, calmly enough, "How would I have found that out if I did not call you?" he responded, "Uhhh...I don't know."

I asked for management and explained how poor this experience has been. She said we were scheduled for tomorrow, but she could not tell me what time we were schedule for until after 6:00 this evening. She promised to call.

Sears: Bad Customer Service, Status Quo, or Both?

Sears is a revered brand. It stands for reliability, solid products, longevity and responsiveness to customers. We buy almost all of our appliances from them, and we have always thought they were the gold standard for customer support and service.

Until now. While trying to get our clothes dryer fixed, I've experienced a series of miss-set expectations, which is the single greatest cause of a bad customer experience, regardless of the eventual expertise of the repair or technical person.

Background: our clothes dryer broke Friday. When I turned it on, something smelled like it was burning and it made an awful racket as the drum rotated. So, since we have an extended warranty, I called Sears.

They said they could come on Wednesday (today) between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Foolishly, I asked if they could narrow the time frame down. The customer service person blithely said the technician would call the day before the service and provide a more specific time.

Yesterday, about 7:30 p.m., I received an automated message from Sears. They narrowed the time down by a half hour. The repairman would be here between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

My husband immediately called Sears to ask if they could provide a little more precision, since we both work and our son had a class and then camp in the morning. They assured him the repairman would call "first thing in the morning" to narrow down the time frame.

Next, my husband called his office to arrange to be late for a meeting this morning. He stayed home while I took our son to his class and camp. I came home and waited. And waited. And waited.

It is 3:00 p.m. and no repairman has appeared or called. I've gotten no work done, skipped my workout, not walked my dogs, and my dryer is still not fixed. Plus, I have no reliable source of information to call to see if the repair person will show up today.

I just called Sears and they told me I am the last repair on the technician's route. I asked why I was not told this before and they said they did not know. I explained that each time we spoke, we asked for a more specific time frame, and no one could provide one. They are going to call the technician and call me back to tell me when he will be here.

If they don't call me back and no one arrives before 4:30, I will have to go pick up my son, secure in the knowledge the repair person will arrive while I am gone. It is a needlessly bad experience.

I suspect anyone reading this has been through the same wasted day I just spent. It's the way home-related business is done, whether repairs, cable installation, appliance delivery or installation, landscaping services, or anything else requiring someone to come to your house. It should not be so time-consuming and uncommunicative.

In a world as connected as ours is, customers should be able to go online, see a reliable window of time in which the repair person is likely to arrive, contact the company if necessary, and not spend eight or nine hours waiting. Most of all, if you tell a customer that something is going to happen - someone will call, someone will be at a certain place, whatever - make sure it happens the way you set the expectation it will. Sears did not follow through today.

Wisdom from a friend

One of my favorite people shared this with me today, and I loved it. Lucky in my relationships, I've experienced more than my share of kindness throughout my life. So, tonight I am particularly thankful for the miles I have yet to travel, the family and friends I've shared the journey with so far, and the ones I've yet to meet.

Never forget to show kindness, to share what you have with others. Give us courage and cheerfulness to go the second mile, and all the miles ahead.
From the New Zealand
Prayer Book

Trapster lets you report speed traps, people slow down, everybody wins

I just signed up for Trapster, a free application for your cell phone or PDA that lets you report speed traps - and alerts you to speed traps that others report. I am going to download it to my iPhone and see how well it works. You call an 800 number to report any speed traps. Your alert is relayed to the PDAs and phones of people in the vicinity. They can rate the reliability of the reports. You can add it to Google Maps using Loki. It is an intriguing use of presence awareness.

Maximize your web copy's message: the F-shape and eye scans

Want to write powerful copy for your website? Learn about Jakob Nielsen's studies. The usability guru once categorized the typical way someone reads hypertext as an F.

He found that most of us read text from left to right

==========>===================>==========>
then return ||
<====================<=================<==

then read down the left side
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
\/
then go to the right and back again
==============>=========>
| | | |
| | | |
| |==<=========<=======<==
| |
| |
\/
and then down the left some more, forming a visual "F"
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
\/

He also found that people, unsurprisingly, do not intensively read text (although they do scrutinize small text.) They scan the words.

How is this useful? Well, if you

1. emphasize the first two sentences of your text
2. use clear and powerful language at the beginning of sentences, the beginnings and ends of paragraphs. and
3. use bullets, subheads, and small graphics to highlight your main points

you will increase the likelihood your reader will get the idaes you want to convey.

Interesting expansion on the related usability concepts of eye tracking and heat maps here. I cannot vouch for the company's work, but their video example is very useful to better understand these concepts.

Authenticity

I received an email from a friend not too long ago. The title was "Asking for Help." I did not know this woman very well, but I liked her. Did I open the email? You betcha.

Why did I open it? Because that title was irresistible. It was simple, sincere, and direct.

I not only opened the email, I read it in its entirety. Then I forwarded it to a group of friends. Turns out my friend's niece has a genetic disorder and my friend wanted to host a silent auction to help the family manage the financial burden that comes with those challenges. She wrote a straightforward request for help, for an easily understandable reason, so it was very easy to answer it.

I think we have entered an era where authenticity and simplicity must be a part of your messaging. Potential customers are savvy enough to zip through fluff and hype generated by lazy marketers, salespeople and hucksters. Your value proposition needs to be valid, and it needs to emotionally and intellectually resonate with the prospect. That is, it should pass the BS filter along with the "I want to be a part of that" filter.

PS Emmy's journey is here, if you want to answer the call for help.

Quick search engine optimization tip: TITLE tags

Here is a quick boost to improve your website's results in search engines. Take a look at your TITLE tags. How?

1. Go to the page you want to view.
2. Click on the View drop down menu at the top of your browser.
3. Choose Source (in Internet Explorer).
4. Look for TITLE in brackets like this "<>" near the top of all that code. Read the text between TITLE and /TITLE. Both words are surrounded by < and >. The TITLE phrase is what you see in the title bar at the top of your browser.

To optimize:
1. Do recognize that the first 65 characters of your TITLE tag are the most important. Lead with your strongest keywords.
2. Do use plain English. The TITLE needs to be in normal English - sentence structure is optimal.
3. Do NOT stuff your keywords! Do NOT string a ton of keywords together and call it a title.
3. Do standardize your title tags. If you sell products, I'd lead with product, then product category, then company. If you sell services, lead with the service, the company and the call to action.
4. Do make every title different. Vary the products first, of course.

Make-A-Wish rocks

Call me Captain Obvious, but I think it's worth noting that Make-a-Wish does the work of angels. Can you remember dreaming as a child about a fairy godmother who would come and grant you a spectacular wish? I remember, greedy girl that I was, strategizing how to transform that one wish into an infinite number, so I'd be ready if I were ever lucky enough to find a genie in a bottle.

As an adult, I was lucky enough to volunteer with the Seattle office of Make-A-Wish for over two years. I managed their website and did whatever marketing the savvy, deeply compassionate, and whip-smart marketing director Sandy Rhyneer needed me to do. They was the most inspiring, competent and committed team I've worked with to date, and every visit to the office was fun-filled and irreverent.

The first week, Sandy asked me to call some "wish families" to ask if we could use their testimonials in the annual report. The first two calls were uneventful. On my third call, a woman answered the phone. With sad grace, she told me her five-year-old son had died the previous week but that we were welcome to use his wish story, because Make-A-Wish brought him delight when he needed ot the most. I hung up the phone, put my head on the desk and cried - for her loss, for that child's uncontrollably short life, and for the pure gratitude she mustered in the midst of her grief.

The majority of children referred to Make-A-Wish recover from their life-threatening illnesses. Waving your magic wand and granting a child's wish, unexpectedly and with no strings attached, answers a deeply-felt call. What better thing is there to do than to help a child suspend his or her suffering for a time while that child realizes his or her dream?

You can learn more about the national Make-A-Wish organization here. Seattle's website is here and Colorado's foundation is here.

They get many requests to volunteer in the office, so I'd look on their websites to see if they are specifically asking for volunteers. What they absolutely need is people who will host fund-raisers in their homes, work with companies to match donations, or simply give money individually. So, if you have talent, time or treasure to put to use, please consider them.

Official blog launch

Greetings, everyone! This will be the official blog for Amplify Marketing. I will be blogging on business topics related to marketing and technology. My goal is to provide useful information about cool tools and useful sites that help clients and friends extend your online presence and, ultimately, improve your business.