Digital Marketing and Web Strategy by Bob Hazlett | One Half Amazing!

My good friend, Will Murphy, recently published his first book titled Online Tools for Small Businesses.  Here’s what he has to say about it;

It is a book for people who are experts in their field (like   consultants, insurance agents, etc) and want to know what sites could be useful along with some tips. I am not promoting it as a book for Web experts – as they will already know almost everything in it. But, I do think there are some small businesses that could find it useful as a starting point. Especially if they are really a small business that are not fully utilizing all the web tools that could help them.

So if you’ve got a small business, but not the time or money to waste on getting up to speed, Will has put together a great resource on a wide variety of internet topics.  You can buy the paperback version via Amazon or even have it delivered electronically to your Kindle.

Sorry, I’ve been quite for the past few weeks.  Ideas and inspiration come in spurts sometimes and I’ve just not really had much to say.  So rather than cloud the site with clutter, I’ve been recharging and nose deep in a few books. I’d recommend you check these two out.

I’m sorry for being off topic and I apologize in advance to any of my readers who come to my site because of the digital marketing content. I promise I’ll make it brief. There are 2 things that I just really need to say about the opportunity John Calipari has with the city of Memphis. I’m not talking about the university’s basketball program, I’m talking about the city and region as a whole.

First, don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of being passionate about what you do and working to become the best at, regardless if its coaching basketball or cutting grass. I believe that being surrounded by the best people and being in the right environment only helps make you better.  I wouldn’t fault Coach Cal for leaving, Kentucky is a great program.

The point I think Cal is missing is the bigger opportunity beyond basketball and beyond money.  It’s about the message he can send to the city of Memphis. He can say, “You know what, Memphis is a great city to live and there is plenty of opportunity here. Why wouldn’t someone want to start and spend their life here?  These people love, adore and support me beyond my wildest dreams. I’d be stupid to leave. I’m honored to call Memphis my home.”

Someone like that is what the city needs to let them know that they aren’t second class city that can be used and abused, but rather, first rate and one that they should be proud to call home.

Memphis Pillow Fight Bobby Digital Style from Bob Hazlett on Vimeo.

On March 21, 2009 a fun, old-fashioned pillow fight broke out in Overton Park. Bobby Digital was there to catch all of the action. Enjoy!

What’s your blog all about?
My blog is about being a father, husband, and all around dude. I talk about anything that pops up on my radar from funny stories about my kid, pop culture, and events in Memphis. 

Where can people find you online?
Blogging at Buck’s Blog, Rules For My Daughter, Supernatural Blog and contributing to Dad-o-Matic.  Also on twitter, facebook and myspace

What do you consider being your best blog post?
This two fold.  I think my best post is a tribute to my wife,  but my most popular is my 99 Things to Do and Dying Ain’t One.

What song best represents your blog?
As much as I love, I can not be confined to one song.  One song that always moves me and inspires me is Off’s “O Fortuna”

What’s your best blogging/social media/online marketing tip?
Don’t use automatic devices.  Connect.  It is called is called SOCIAL Media for a reason

If you could have known one secret about life when you were a teen, what would it be?
That is okay to be you.  The worst that ever is going to happen is someone laughs at you.  Laugh first and you leave them unarmed.  I spent a lot of time being shy.

What is the one thing that you constantly think about?
I want to become a novelist.  It is constantly on my mind.  The only other thing that I think about more is my family.

What are you reading right now?
Online- I read a lot.  I read both of the papers here in Memphis daily.  Commercial Appeal and Memphis Flyer.  I read this blog, Lifehacker, and pretty much anything that is linked in my blog.  I use my links on my blog as my personal reader.  I have a lot of stuff in Google Reader too.

Offline – Four to Score, Four Hour Work Week, Dexter in The Dark, New Moon, and The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery.  Yes I am reading 5 books at the same time.

What 3 things that you think will be obsolete in the next 10 years?
Home Phones, Radio, and Me.

What was your last great idea?
To speak to the dark hair girl who was cleaning the bar with me at work 4 years ago.  She probably would have never spoken to me but since I ordered her to fetch me a beer, it was love at first sight.

“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.