Given my propensity for nerdiness and specifically my passion for entrepreneurial businesses in the online world I often get asked by friends, family and tweeps about what company or service I would recommend for this or that related to the Internet or online marketing. I am happy to give one of advice but find myself recommending the same companies and services time and time again so I thought it would be worthwhile to break down months of recommendations into a usable list of technologies and/or services I use or recommend you use in your business. I’ve tried to include some brief information on why I use the company/service and what I find valuable about that particular company but there are two things that you can be sure are true of any company that makes my list. First the company must be hell-bent on customer service, if there is one thing that every company (online or offline) should be passionate about, it is customer service and creating customer evangelists (I think I qualify as example A with this list) so if a company has made my list you can expect that while they might not be Zappos, they’ll treat you with respect. Second, to make my list the company/service has to be one that does not require a second mortgage on your home to use, if it’s on this list then in my estimation the benefits of use far outweigh the cost.

I’ve tried to break these down into some sort of usable categories and would be happy to expand on my experiences with any of these companies so feel free to drop a comment or ask anything that’s on your mind.

So here is my inaugural list of companies that rock! Continue Reading…

As Oprah pulled up at the Twitter table last week it seemed like the party was over. There are no shortage of people who declared that the reason to use Twitter was dead now that it was being taken over by celebrities like Aston Kutcher (@aplusk) and the aforementioned Ms. Winfrey.

I guess that is one way you could view the happenings, yet I’m going to ask you take a look at a different group of people (all of whom are celebrities) and I think you will get the sense that while Oprah is undoubtedly like your parents (and why not follow my Dad – @actonroad) chaperoning and then deciding to dance at your prom, if you take the time to follow some of the great athletes that have embraced Twitter you’ll get a totally different view.

I am going to start by saying that I do not really think it’s fair to put Shaq or Lance Armstrong in the same column as Oprah when it comes to their “cool” factor, but I think it is essentially fair if we are just trying to compare celebr-twit to celebri-twit on my invented “this person is autograph worthy” scale. Continue Reading…

As I get more and more involved in social media and specifically work to launch this site there are lots of lessons along the way. One that recently came to my attention was the fact that people who take the few minutes it requires to set up their Twitter profile page (see mine here) are doing themselves a huge service whether they realize it or not.

I am not sure how everyone else uses Twitter and whether they take the time to head to people’s profile page but I can tell you I certainly do. I save up my Twitter follow notifications in my in-box and every couple of days I make a point of going to the the profile page of those people who I have recently started following or who started following me. Twitter allows you to personalize your profile to a certain extent by filling out a brief biography, listing a site that you blog on or otherwise etc. However if you do not take advantage of the rest of the landscape offered to you, I would submit that you are missing out on a great opportunity to both personalize your existence on Twitter and more importantly market whatever site, life philosophy or even charity you wish from your profile background picture.

I generally don’t love asking people to come to my site via Twitter (although it is sometimes necessary) but I do believe that when I post something of value or when someone else is kind enough to suggest people follow me, my profile page is my platform (litterally) for letting them know the quick hits of information that I wish to promote at that day in time.

As you can see on my profile I have the three most important pieces of information (my email and two blog sites) I wish to get across easily visible and more importantly easily revisable if I decide I want to promote something else.

The process took me ten minutes. I picked a royalty free photo from istockphoto, edited the sign in Pixelmator and uploaded it to Twitter. Now I have a personalized space, people easily know where to find me and more importantly my 2 blogs are promoted to everyone who visits my profile page. I would strongly suggest you do the same.

You often hear about the marketing machines that professional athletes have become. Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Lebron James and countless others make up a multi-billion dollar a year endorsement industry. These athletes are corporations unto themselves and quite frankly they sound like it when they give interviews. You simply do not hear the biggest names (and as such the ones with both the largest platform and largest endorsement deals) ever say anything controversial or really take issue with what is being said about them.

We do find these same athletes online, but again their websites seem more like corporate brochures than a place that really offers any insight into their real world.  Other athletes will guest blog on ESPN or at their local sports site, but again that is so cleansed that I often wonder if it really isn’t just a PR guy who gets the player to sign off on the post – if even that. Though I do say that last piece with the caveat that all of the aforementioned athletes (along with countless others) have foundations or charities which they promote online which of course is terrific. Nonetheless I find it extremely refreshing to read and follow athletes that have turned to the Internet in much the same fashion as you or I and let their real personality and feelings come through.

I thought I would give you just a few examples of some athletes worth following online along with a brief notation of just why I find them to be “real”.

Jamal Crawford – New York Knicks – The Crawford Files - This is the story that served as the impetus for writing this post.

On Oct. 16, New York Post writer Marc Berman posted a blog titled “Crawford Doesn’t Want Marbury Around,” referring to embattled New York guard Stephon Marbury. According to Crawford, the story wasn’t true.

Crawford said he confronted Berman and told him, “Well, now I’m going to have to write about you on my blog.”

He wrote: “In typical Berman fashion after he writes something like this, he doesn’t come (to practice) the next day”…LOL. And Berman is actually a good guy, but I guess he needed something to write.”

Crawford’s blog entry drew dozens of online comments from readers, many commented on the role reversal of athletes blogging about writers. “I would’ve had that built-up frustration,” said Crawford of how blogging helps him to vent. “It was fun to get it off my chest. “I thought it was a great idea instead of just doing an interview. (Berman) writes so I can write as well. Some of my teammates thought it was cool.”

Chris Bosh (Twitter)  - Toronto Raptors – CB4 - If you have not seen the YouTube sensation that is Chris Bosh, there are so many videos you just must see. Chris and Baron Davis are even having a contest to see who can put up the funniest clip online.

In the video below Chris makes his bid for your votes to the 2008 NBA All-Star Game. Bosh is an NBA superstar there is no doubt of that and he has the marketing deals to go with it, but his personality shines online.

Dontrelle Willis – Florida Marlins – Dontrelle Willis writes at Yardbarker which is a corporately funded sports blog site run along the same lines as Digg. He seems to write semi-regularly and his posts have a nice fun quick hitting style.

Alex Merricks – New York Mets Prospect - This is one of my favorite blogs. Do not be scared off by the fact that it looks like (and is) the home of his management company, there are some really good stories here and there are a few other players that blog at the same site.

Serena Williams – Tennis Star - Serena’s site looks a little corporate but she lends her voice from time to time and she’s outside the basketball scope.