Articles

Banish the Buzzwords to Ensure You Stand Out Now

Do you remember watching the Charlie Brown cartoons? In those cartoons, whenever the teacher would respond to one of the kids, we as the audience would hear “wa wa wa wa wa”. Much like what kids hear (or don’t hear) when their parents or teachers tell them to do something. Or, much like us when we read or hear the same buzz words over and over and over and over again! Each year, LinkedIn releases the latest overused buzzwords that it recommends you remove from your profile if you want to stand o…

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Be Determined in Getting Clear About Who Your Target Audience Is

One of the main challenges that businesses face is attracting their ideal client. For many, they see the total addressable market (TAM) and multiply that by the price of their product or service—it's HUGE!! And it’s not reality. You can have the best sales funnel and the product or service offerings but if you are not attracting the right people then you have a problem. Your problem only gets bigger when developing and implementing your marketing strategy because you end up doing more, paying mo…

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My International Immersion to Vietnam was Amazing!

Last year I started the Executive MBA program at the Foster School of Business, University of Washington. Part of that program includes a one week international immersion at the beginning of the second year. I went to Viet Nam and was there for three weeks. Below are the highlights from my trip as well as a link to the full write up if you are interested. A shortened version of the write up is also posted on the Foster blog.

Thank you again for your support as I continue with this journey!

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Blog-Viral

How to Boost Your Social Media Performance

As a B2B executive, you understand that social media isn’t just a passing trend; it’s a critical component of a modern marketing strategy. However, it’s not a standalone solution but a potent amplifier to complement your objectives. Here are vital strategies to ensure your social media endeavors align with your company goals.


The Misleading Nature of Numbers

It’s often said that numbers don’t lie, but they don’t always present the whole truth. Shockingly, statistics reveal that a staggering …

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Connecting People and Technology for Building Your Brand

Omicle-GoViralOnceYour brand is not like Vegas—what people say on social media about your brand does not stay there! In fact it actually drives whether you get the sale or not.

Did you know: 71% of consumers are likely to purchase an item based on social media recommendations?

When you understand the difference between how technology communicates verses how people communicate and then how to merge them together you’ll begin to understand why some brands go viral or are able to build that cult-like following—two g…

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Mel DePaoli featured as a #LadyLeader: We idealize people who are famous, have a fancy title, or have a lot of money

This article was originally featured on redlmb Management Solutions blog as a part of their #LadyLeader Series. You can read the original article here. The #LadyLeader Series is designed to help you get from someplace complex to something more simple. Some of the smartest women and men uncovered tips, tactics, and strategies for how to go from complex to simple. They’ve shared ideas around how to network to maximize your business's reach, outlined ways to move out of your comfort zone and start …

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The Selfish Selfie

There was a time when what we now call a “selfie” was cute, sweet, fun, memorable, and even unpredictable. Contrary to popular belief, the selfie was not invented when our phones got cameras. They have been around for a long time, just by other names.

Let’s go back to days of Polaroid’s, 35 mm, and 110 film. Even in the days of film we took selfies. It was how you documented a vacation that you were on but didn’t have anyone to take the picture, or it was you hanging out with your friends wanting…

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Mel DePaoli Goes Back to School to Get an Executive MBA Degree

By now you have probably heard that I have been accepted into the University of Washington's Michael G. Foster School of Business’s Executive MBA program. But the news I haven’t shared until now, is that I have also received two scholarships! The National Speaker’s Association has given me $5,000 and Tabor 100, $2,500.

My intention of going through this program is to obtain a different and more enhanced perspective of the business market, experience the international immersion session that is bui…

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socialmediarules

Communicate with, don't talk at people when you are participating on LinkedIn

Yes it is easy to automate your blog posts so they automatically post to the groups you belong to. The challenge with that is it screams "Sales Pitch! Do not click!" It is also against the rules in some groups which could result in you getting banned from the group, or worse, being put in LinkedIn jail! I know this may surprise you but all of those little photos of people that you see on LinkedIn, they are real people just like you! They don’t like to be talked at, told what to do, or to be trea…

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Tips for Publishing Successful Posts on LinkedIn

Yes you can think of Pulse as LinkedIn's blog. But do not confuse it as a replacement for your blog! When LinkedIn acquired Pulse a few years back, their intention was to create a central hub of business-related news and resources so you, the busy executive could spend less time searching the internet for your business-related questions.

Pulse is also not intended to be a place where you copy and paste the same article from your blog onto it. The search engines actually frown up reposting the sam…

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