Thanks to Mari Smith for providing a new high-tech resource you can use, for free, to bring your business card or resource into the smartphone age.

It’s called uQR.me, and it makes a QR (Quick Response) code that can be scanned by any smartphone. It then takes the user to any link or document of your choice, and you can change it any time.

Kinda like your own personal bar code.

You can test mine out below by holding your smartphone up to the image:

Cool, huh?

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

One thing I’m noticing more and more on social networks like Facebook is the tendency it has to turn rational, intelligent adults into gushing, fawning groupies.

And I’m not just talking about how being contacted with a friend request from an old high school crush can cause many people to dredge up those awkward old feelings, as pointed out in a blog post by Kristen Nicole more than 18 months ago.

“In part due to the fact that anyone could join, and in part due to the fact that Facebook really is a good way to reconnect with and stay connected to friends, Facebook has become the dominant social network of the times. But does Facebook just make us all act like silly teenagers?” she asks.

No, what I’m seeing is a tendency for people to post comments on the profiles and pages of relatively well-known professionals (think authors, speakers, marketers, bloggers, and others who have some sort of online presence) in a way that makes the commenter seem almost brainless…

>>> CONTINUE READING From Astute Adults to Gushing Groupies…

Sam Goldfarb is the author of Facebook For Business: How to Market your Business on Facebook and Get More Sales, New Customers, and Brand Awareness.

He’s also a former computer engineer and the General Manager of Tradimax, a company that develops branded Facebook pages and devises Facebook advertising campaigns.

I asked Sam if I could ask him some questions about marketing on Facebook, and he agreed to share his best advice.

In this interview, Sam explains how we can all use Facebook to increase our sales and marketing results, regardless of the size of our business.

Heather Vale Goss: When did you start tapping into the power of Facebook?

>>> CONTINUE READING Interview: Facebook Marketing for Businesses…

If you already have a website but want to increase your conversions — by thousands of dollars, no less — this is one sweet little piece of software!

It’s called Exit Splash, and it makes it very compelling for undecided customers to stay on your site — and even better, to buy what you’re selling.

I’ve been playing with it for a few days, and I really like what it does. It’s kind of like multiple scripts in one, so you can just focus on your site, or add a Web 2.0 viral Twitter component, or get suggestions from your customers… your choice!

I could tell you more about what it does, but I’ll let the developer do that. What I’ll tell you is, it really works.

I’ll also tell you that the price will be going up shortly after the official launch, so if you have a site and want more sales (don’t we all!) you’ll probably want to check this out as soon as possible.

It will be launching very shortly, but if you get there before the doors open, be sure to watch the free video and get on the notification list here.

Keep Unwrapping Your Success!

One thing I’ve learned as a new parent is that almost everything to do with raising a child has two completely opposite schools of thought… similar to the two styles of spiritual growth teaching that Barry and I often talk about (the “Love and Light” and the “Tough Love”).

With both, I tend to gravitate to something partway between the two extremes.

Now I’ve noticed that Twitter also has two completely opposite techniques for following people… I call them “Twitter Rockstars” (the equivalent of Tough Love) and “Twitter Groupies” (the equivalent of Love and Light).

So which are you… a Rockstar or a Groupie?

Or, like me, do you tend to prefer the middle ground?…

>>> CONTINUE READING Twitter Rockstar or Twitter Groupie?…

There was a song in an old Disney movie that we learned in Grade 3:

Everything is Twitter-pated in the spring,
Skunks smell sweet, rabbits sing.
Daffodils go daffy when the bluebells ring,
Cuz everyone’s in love!

I’m not sure if that’s how Twitter got its name, but I know it IS easy to get infatuated with the thing… I joined up within seconds had a ton of people following me.  I watched it go from 20 to 24 to 42 to… well, you can find out how many it is now by checking out my profile.

Yes, that’s right… I finally signed up for Twitter.  It’s an experiment to see what its usefulness really is…

So far I can see that the back link to this blog is great for SEO considerations, and in turn the back link from this blog to my Twitter page will help get traffic there.

And it’s pretty cool that I connected with several people that I haven’t talked to in awhile, and did so within the first few minutes of creating my profile… before my picture was even uploaded.

And it’s fun to read the little messages that people put up, and to answer them back.  Then again, I can see how that could become a huge time waster (like I need something to waste my time when it’s at a premium right now… my computer time is handled in chunks in between feeding, changing and playing with Konan, when he’s sleeping and I should be too!)

Of course, if those messages are used for business purposes, it could get valuable back links AND drive real human traffic to whatever website you want to “Twitter” about.

And if they’re for personal reasons, it’s a lot better than chat because you can communicate with just one or two messages to several people in only a few minutes, rather than getting caught up in an hour-long conversation with one.

Still, I’ll wait before I recommend it to Barry, because he doesn’t see the point, and I need to be able to give a definitive endorsement first.

But do connect with me in the meantime at Twitter.com/HeatherVale

Keep Unwrapping Your Online Success!