Insights

You know the phrase location, location, location? Well, that's exactly what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about. It's not just random words and phrases...it's about making sure people find you and go to you as an authority on your topic.

We live in a world where your "address" on the internet is highly important for revenue, new business, brand awareness, and credibility. It's not simply enough to have as site-you need to rank within the search engines!

This past week I had the privilege of attending an in-depth training on SEO with a highly ...

Don't get me wrong-I'm a faithful raconteur on Facebook (and obviously going through my French phase!) but it's not a substitute for the real thing.  It's "media" not "life!"

When was the last time you prayed with someone on Facebook?
Or even "twittered" a prayer?

When was the last time you hugged your "fans"?
Or had one of them to dinner?  (Whoa-let's not get too "up close and personal.")

Who do you go to when you've suffered a loss?  "You" Tube?  I don't think so.

This past week one of our leadership received ...

It's a title that comes from a Chinese proverb:  "Women hold up half the sky."  It's also a remarkable book by the Pulitzer prize winning author, Nicholas Kristof:  Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

It was my privilege to hear Nicholas this week at a lecture series in Newport Beach.  Half the Sky isn't easy reading.  Nicholas Kristof says that the moral challenge of this century is "the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe:  sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape."  And story after story illustrates ...

Facebook!  I greeted it with the same enthusiasm with which I greet most social interaction: "Do I have to?"

So, let's check off my original bias:

1/Facebook's a place people exchange fun pleasantries about where they're eating lunch, or who they just ran into. (Ooops, confusing Facebook with Twitter!)

2/mothers/dads keeping track of their offspring without appearing too controlling! (I'm all for it, but I'm not a parent.)

3/grandmothers wanting to hear from their grandchildren and EXCEPT for Facebook never hear or see enough of them. (Girl, you go for it ...

On the list of endangered species: the wired home phone.  No other technology has the universal market penetration like the wired home telephone does.  But that’s coming to an end as The Economist points out in their August 15, 2009 edition.

 At an increasing rate, people are saying “goodbye” to their wired home phone, and replacing it with their cell phone.  They’re hanging up their landline at the astounding rate of about 700,000 per month. 

For the first time last year, the number of people using only a mobile phone exceeded the number of people using ...

Sharing in common has gotten a bad rep-as the image of a 60's type hippie commune makes its way into our consciousness!  It can be off putting to a generation who remember the peace sign, the "luv" and the drugs!

But sharing is a concept worth considering as a fund raising paradigm.

As fund raisers we emphasize "giving."  And well we should.  It's a biblical emphasis-a promised blessing when we give.

But there's certainly as much emphasis on "sharing."  Paul described the early church in Acts 2:44 as "believers together who had everything in common. . .together ...