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Sunday Brunch – Improving Your Google Traffic

Julius Meinl coffee house in Southport, Chicago, is Gini's favourite Sunday Brunch place.

Welcome to a new episode of Sunday Brunch, where we talk about your questions on social media, marketing, business tips, entrepreneurship and more.

Today?s question is from Gini Dietrich, CEO of communications firm Arment Dietrich and owner of the popular Spin Sucks blog. Gini asks:

?Danny, when I saw you speak at PodCamp in Toronto, you said Google is your number one driver of traffic. Our number one driver is Twitter, then Facebook, then Networked Blogs, then Hootsuite, and THEN Google. We’d love to switch that around so Google is number one and the others follow suit. We use the SEO all-in-one-pack and SEO Scribe. We’re well ranked on Google and through the search engines, but we must be doing something wrong. Any insight??

Thanks for the question, Gini, and I hope the video helps.

If you have a question, you can send it in via the form below. There?s also a file upload option, if you want to send in a picture of your favourite Sunday Brunch place.

Cheers, and see you same time, same place next week for some more Sunday Brunch chats.

Resources:
As mentioned in the video, below is the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool that you might find useful:

Google Keyword Suggestion Tool.

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Immitation or Inspiration?

There’s a lot of buzz online at the minute about a video doing the rounds from U.K. online content specialists Purplefeather.

In the video (seen below), a blind beggar is struggling to get people to put money in his tin. They see him, but most walk by. Then a girl walks by, sees the man, looks at his sign and has a brainwave (I won’t spoil it in case you haven’t seen the video yet).

It’s this action, and the message behind it, that’s resulted in all the buzz about the video. Not surprising – it’s a powerful message.

But it’s not the original message.

Three years ago, Alonso Alvarez Barreda of Wama Films made a longer video. It was about a blind beggar who was struggling to get people to put money into his tin. A kindly passer-by sees this and… well, you get the picture.

Purplefeather’s video is great, and they mention on their YouTube channel that their video is a homage to Alonso’s video, and it’s always nice to see credit where credit’s due.

But part of me can’t help but wonder if a direct remake was needed over the original, or if a similar point could have been made with a different video. Or are we really out of original ideas, now? I’m also curious if Purplefeather paid the original director, since (to me) it’s more than just a homage (of course, that’s just my cynical business head coming through).

The videos are below (the new version is the first one). What’s your take – imitation or inspiration?

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Update: Thanks to Dukeo for the heads-up that the “original” video seems to be a copy itself. And the dearth of originality goes on…

Introducing Bryan and The Shepherd Group

Over at Bonsai Interactive Marketing, we’re helping Toronto-based insurance broker The Shepherd Group (TSG) redefine the insurance industry.

Led by owner Neil Shepherd, TSG aims to be different from your usual run-of-the-mill insurance company.

Traditionally a very stuffy and old boys school industry, Neil wants TSG to lead insurance into a more modern approach.

This takes in buying insurance online (still a relative novelty in Canada) to how the insurance industry uses social media and online marketing, to connecting with the community and much more.

It’s a gradual process and one that we’re starting to see take shape now.

As part of the approach, we’ve introduced “Bryan” to The Shepherd Group – a gangly new employee with a heart of gold, but who often gets himself caught up in awkward moments.

This short video introduces Bryan to you. I’ll be sharing more videos, as well as a more in-depth look at how TSG is embracing “being different”, in future posts (either here or on the Bonsai blog).

In the meantime, hope you enjoy this introduction. Cheers!

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Sunday Brunch – Organizational Tools

John's favourite brunch place, Grandpa Pete's Bagels in Stroudsburg, PA

Welcome to a new episode of Sunday Brunch, where we talk about your questions on social media, marketing, business tips, entrepreneurship and more.

Today?s question is from John Komatsoulis, owner of Learn About LLC, a Business Development Firm with offices in North Miami Beach, Florida, Albrightsville, Pennsylvania & Montreal, Canada. John asks:

?What tools do you use to keep your day organized??

Thanks for the question, John, and I hope the video helps.

If you have a question, you can send it in via the form below. There?s also a file upload option, if you want to send in a picture of your favourite Sunday Brunch place.

Cheers, and see you same time, same place next week for some more Sunday Brunch chats.

Resources:
As mentioned in the video, below are the four resources I use that you might find useful:

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