I thought I’d take a break from writing about ecommerce and marketing and focus on some amazing folks who are blogging and sharing ideas.

Each of these bloggers have a unique blogging style that produces an inspirational feeling to their audience. They are dedicated to their readers and prove they listen by responding to questions and concerns each week. They impress me again and again with their topics and insight, and how much they share of their personal life. I’ll continue to look forward to reading their posts every week!

Chris Guillebeau is a world traveler and has set an impressive goal to set foot in every country in the world by the time he is 35. Right now the count is 125 countries, not too shabby! Chris’ blog is built upon of his world travels as well as offering advice and insight to being a freelancer. I interviewed Chris earlier this year and how he’s used social media to communicate his blog and business - Check out his blog and you’ll be inspired to live a life that’s unconventional!

Erica Douglass is now “retired” after selling her web hosting business at the age of 26. Erica composes blog posts each week about business advice, her challenges having Celiac disease, as well as her goals for new businesses that she’s launching this year. She’s very candid about how she’s achieving her goals and shares the steps and secrets of how she works her way to making $10,000 from her writing.

A very inspirational person, I always find that after reading some of Erica’s posts, that I can take her ideas and apply them to my business. I really enjoy how she communicates with her readers and maintains that she’s an every day type of person that can be successful and so can you. Most of it is hard work, persistence, and a winning attitude.

Snack Girl is Lisa Cain, a snacker who has a Ph.D., a published author and a mother of 2. She’s fascinated with snack food and is great at debunking what we might find as “healthy” at first, but if you read the fine print, looks are deceiving!

Every week Lisa either shares a snack that she feels is a healthy alternative to a fatty snack, shares her own challenges with weight, or shares her reader successes with weight loss and how they accomplished it. What impresses me is after reading Snack Girl for a few months is that I’m evaluate my snacking and readinb labels much more than before. Snack Girl is great about reminding us how many teaspoons of sugar are in a Slushie versus fruit juice and how that can affect us over a period of time. I notice that I’m making better decisions when I purchase drinks or snacks and have been influenced to even bake more of my own snacks, so I know what ingredients are being added!

Do you have a favorite blogger you read weekly or monthly? Who would you like to share?

Share

Related Posts:

• Squidoo, Seth Godin’s marketing animal

What’s so special about bread? Dave’s Killer Bread has managed to make a great product and have a fascinating, compelling story behind the business. If you’d like to learn the story, check out this video. Relaying stories can be a challenge, but the marketing team at Dave’s have made quite an impact. Here’s what they’ve done right:

• DKB has an active Twitter account, where they share upcoming events and bread specials they are running at their store.. I noticed a lot of cross over between Facebook and Twitter accounts, which great since most folks use one or the other to communicate. Using both to share info can be really powerful.

• Using the power of video – they set up their own YouTube account where they are storing different interviews and video about the making the bread and Dave’s story.

• Teaming up with the Goodbyn Lunchbox for a sandwich contest. The content was based on people posting their favorite sandwich using Dave’s Killer Bread on the DKB Facebook page and the top 3 creative ones would be selected as the winners. The Goodbyn Lunchbox Facebook page lists all of the winners and points to Dave’s site for the recipes.

• Also, they are getting direct feedback from customers about the bread daily. One customer wrote in that they noticed that the “Good Seed” bread was undercooked in the middle lately and Dave’s team responded within the hour saying “thanks for letting us know and they will be fixing it soon”. That’s impressive.

Do you know of similar companies that are paving the road with passion about their product? Can’t wait to see what Dave’s Killer Bread will do next!

Share

Related Posts:

• Sock it to Marketing: Interview with Carrie Atkinson

Brian C.  Johnson is the man behind the local Portland magazine: Mix. Mix is a great mixup of food and drink, interviewing restaurants aimed at foodies, sharing recipes, and covering “what’s new” to consume. How does a magazine use social media to help broadcast its news?

What’s your business?

MIX Magazine, Portland’s #1 Food + Drink magazine

When did you start using social media and why?

Began in the summer of 09′ primarily to reach out to those interested in the food + drink category, have dialogue with them and encourage them to read our
publication.

Has social media changed your business?

It has helped us as publishers to have a better understanding of our audience, so I would say it has changed it yes.

How to you envision social media changing in the future?

It will need to continue to be relevant to the consumer. This is the greatest
challenge for any media of our day.

Have a social media story you’d like to share?

We recently did a story on a particular cocktail featuring a local
distiller and a bartender who served this drink at a particular
restaurant in town. We posted the story on Facebook and the restaurant
told us they had so many new customers come in to order the cocktail
that they ran out!

Share

Related Posts:

• 5 Easy Ways a Small Business Can Use Social Media Sites to Sell Online

Some folks are really great at connecting with people. Shona Lepis from Eye Design Studio has figured it out. I got to know her through Twitter and have really enjoyed the links and projects she’s shared. How can you personally brand yourself through Twitter?

What’s your business?
I have a boutique design studio called Eye Design Studio. Eye Design Studio creates artisan handcrafted design for web and print. We work with lifestyle brands to build their business with creative design solutions. We work with a lot of small to medium sized business to help them build their brand.  Eye Design Studio focuses on Visual Identity suites (logo design, custom Web site design, branded social media, email templates, business cards, letterhead).

When did you start using social media and why?
I happen to be a bit of a technology geek and love to learn and try out new things. I was at first skeptical about how social media. I decided to keep current and relevant I really needed to just jump in and embrace social media. I have to say I love it and find that it has been an amazing resource. I love to share links and useful tools and resources I find.

Has social media changed your business?
Social media has allowed me to build my personal and business brand online. By frequently sharing tips, design projects I’m working on,etc. People get to know me a bit more personally so they know my design style. I’m a bit personal in what I share but believe if you are authentic people are interested and get to know me a little more so they can tell if my design style would be a good fit for them.

What are you looking forward to social media changing in the future?
I think social media will just become part of our social fabric and everyday life. I think as technology keeps moving it’s exciting to see how many new tools are there and that “there is an app for that”. I love how the tools keep us connected and like we are part of a community. I work with an international team of with colleges in Paris, France and Bali, Indonesia and the tools make it possible.

Have a social media story you’d like to share?
In fact I do have a funny antidote. I was recently at a Halloween party of a designer friend. The invite asked that we bring a dish to share. I had just gone to another holiday party with the food and of course tweeted about it. (Going to a pumpkin carving party w/ pumpkin cheesecake dip served in a carved pumpkin w/ ginger snaps. http://yfrog.com/iyv1lj) When I got to the party someone said hey “I think I follow you on twitter, I saw you post about the dip.”. It was a funny moment and a great example of how real life connections are made in person from sharing and building a community online.

Share

Related Posts:

• Chatting with one of the Wealthy Freelancers

Toys “R” Us has become one of the fastest growing brands on Facebook. They gathered 100s of new fans over Thanksgiving holiday and the last few weeks…

How did they do it

?

• Yesterday I went to the Toys R Us Facebook Fan page and the offer is if I become a fan of Toys R Us, they will donate a $1 worth of toys to a non-profit that’s sponsored by Shaquille O’Neal.

• Made it easier for customers to vote on product deals for their wish list. It’s called “You Vote – You Save” Promotion, it allows you vote on the deal you most wanted activated with the focus on Cyber Monday.

• As a Facebook fan, you are able to get status updates with weekly and daily deals, special promotions, coupon offers, and find out about exclusive and unadvertised deals.

• Toys R Us gave its customers a preview of their “Biggest Big Book” – a print catalogue that is mailed out full of deals on the latest toys, on their Facebook page, a day before the “Book” was launched on the site. They gave their customers a sneak peak at their “Black Friday” deals.

It will exciting to see other companies and businesses leverage Facebook and help them communicate and improve their customer’s shopping experience with creative ideas.

Share

Related Posts:

• Selling on Facebook: Core Commerce vs. Payvment