Adore sipping cocoa by a fireplace on chilly nights, immersed in the latest Oprah Book Club must-read? Love lounging poolside in July, Piña Colada in one hand, People Magazine in the other?  Heart skip a beat when you last stumbled upon a used bookstore with a cute Nietzsche-reading hipster behind the register? (OK maybe just me…).  You fellow bibliophiles out there know there’s an undeniable romance to the act of reading.  But if you’re anything like me, you’ve entertained a thought or two about jumping on the new E-reading bandwagon.  Well before you drop $150 on the latest Kindle or iPad, or declare yourself permanently anti-Nook, read on as I weigh the main pros and cons of this new literary phenomenon!

I love to dish out unsolicited relationship advice. I also love my job as a marketing intern for the number one web-design firm in Washington, Blue Water Media (shameless plug, my apologies). So for your reading pleasure I’ve combined these loves in the following post about…drum roll please…dating and the Internet! No, I’m not talking about Match.com people. I’m referring to the fact that the same commonly used strategies to find, attract, and keep a romantic partner can be successfully applied to maximize your business’s success online. Both in the dating pool and the realm of Internet marketing, there’s no excuse for passivity. Rather than praying the cutie across the bar asks you out or interested customers randomly land on your self-made website, take action! Having a large following of loyal and involved customers, like finding “the one”, happens overnight only for a select and fortuitous few. The rest of us have to work at it! So ladies and gentlemen, if you want to up your game, get back in the game, or simply win the game, read on!

Want to eat away at your spare time? Cut your work productivity in half?  Cultivate every gossipy tendency you’ve ever had?  People worldwide can’t wait to sign up thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s creation, Facebook.com.  Over the last six years what began as a small meet and greet website for Harvard yuppies has morphed into a global social networking phenomenon.  Facebook.com has catalyzed the formation of a generation of wall-posting, status-updating cyber-zombies whose offspring will likely tweet from the womb.  And I love it!  Hello my name is Rebecca Rubin and I am a Facebook-aholic.

You’ve signed up for MySpace, created a profile on Facebook, and joined Twitter and LinkedIn. Now what?

Identify Your Time Commitment

How many social networks is your business a part of right now? Are you really using this very popular tool for marketing purposes or are you just a profile on a page?
Social networking–like any form of networking–is about dedicating time. Checking in for 10 minutes a day to update your profile status is not going to get you business leads. Additionally, not being involved in the tools you say you use can also send the wrong message to people who are reaching out to you. Make sure you have someone available to put the time into keeping your information fresh and up to date.

“Write a blog post about something you’ve learned this summer. That’s really all the guidance I’m going to give you.  Let’s see how ya do,” my boss instructs, and so I begin my final assignment as the Blue Water Media 2009 summer marketing intern.

If I had a dime for every time I received a project followed by the phrase, “let’s see how ya do” I would be rich (alas, this is not the case and I remain a poor college student).  The words once petrified me because being an intern, like starting your first day of kindergarten, is fraught with new challenges.  Feeling unsure, slightly overwhelmed, and overly excited about mundane tasks is the norm.