In loving memory of Carroll W. Huff

Carroll W. Huff

1916 - 2010

Earlier this morning, I came across an obituary online for my Granddad. I called and spoke with the woman at the funeral home that wrote it whom stated that it wasn't in the package that was ordered, but she felt there should be something online for him. The reason I called was actually to correct a miss-spelled name and add a couple great-grandchildren. And then as I was making breakfast, I realized that there needed to be more than the names of his family members on the internet as some kind of documentation of his life. Realize that what I am about to write and you are about to read about him is from a granddaughter's perspective and much of this information is what I have retained from childhood memories. Please comment below this post if you have any additions, corrections, or comments to add about him. I would really appreciate that.

In my eyes, he was a wonderful man that married my Grandma (Claire) and worked for IBM to provide for his family a son (John, my Dad) and daughter (Janet, my Aunt). They spent much of their life in Maryland before he retired and moved with my Grandma to Lehigh Acres, Florida. In my Grandma's letters she wrote how much they were enjoying their retirement time together. I remember while visiting my Granddad and Grandma dancing in their living room to show us the steps they had learned in their dance classes. There was nothing more romantic to me as a young teenage girl then to see them so happy, taking on new challenges, smiling there and enjoying the dance in front of me. That was one thing about my Granddad, his smile! He was always smiling to see us, to listen when we spoke, and when he laughed... he laughed loud.

My Granddad was quite the tech whiz in my eyes too. It almost seemed as he would light up while conversing about his experiences as an FCC licensed hand radio operator, one of the "Lehigh Hams" in Southwest, Florida. And before I even set my fingers on a computer, Granddad already had internet handles, participated in chats, and eventually even set up websites. He was a stroke and colon cancer survivor for 20 years! I hadn't heard about the later strokes and cancers that ultimately would claim his life until just weeks before his death. And speaking of death... he lived 94 years! I am fortunate to have the memories I've shared here and so many more from visits and vacations with him. And, oh my gosh, I have to mention how he loved his citrus fruit trees that he grew and how there was nothing sweeter than the fruit my Granddad picked for me. My love for him overflows from my heart into happy tears as I imagine he is now reunited with Grandma, dancing with her in Heaven, smiling, and laughing out loud!

SEO & SMM: Use It OR Lose It Solution for Marketing Department Budget Excess

While many Marketing Directors have experienced cut-backs and can only dream of having an excess at this time of the calendar year, some of you may also be looking for a solution to use it before you lose it next year. Here are two solutions to get you the biggest bang for your buck!

The first solution is to start getting social with your prospects and existing customers now utilizing social media. Social media is a great interactive way to connect with people that are thinking about trying your product / service / brand or to build loyalty with those that already buy from you. Social media networking can take time. Each network platform has a type of niche or community of people that use it. Some people use many, while others may have a favorite or two. The point is to think about your strategy and keep people interested by offering special promotions to build your base, to keep people updated and interested. Social media management takes time and if you choose to outsource this time consuming task you'll want to make sure that you work with professionals that care about getting to know about your business so that they can also share your vision for what you want to accomplish.

The second solution worth investing in would be to use the budgeted dollars for search engine optimization (seo) to increase your organic ranking and avoid paying higher prices on your PPC campaigns due to poor optimization, duplicate content, and other deficiencies that can produce penalties that will increase your spend and decrease your ROI. A good SEO company will listen and learn about your business and provide you with a keyword effectiveness index report / analysis so that you can select the terms that will provide the path of least resistance to achieving higher sales conversions. Another very important thing to consider is strategic in-bound links to your website to help the search engines recognize that people like what you have to offer and want to share it with others. In-bound links from good websites are viewed by the search engines as votes of endorsements. Be careful here though: if too many links come from what search engines view as unnatural or from sites that have high penalties and are not properly optimized then it can have the opposite effect on your site. You really want to make sure that the company that handles your strategic linking campaign knows what they are doing and the links are diverse and as natural as possible. Search engines currently crave fresh, relevant, keyword rich content, that is fast to load and it makes sense to give them what they want. In return they give you what you want, a high organic ranking and the biggest bang for your buck towards raising your sales conversion rate and increasing your return on investment.

These solutions offer a great way to use the excess of your marketing budget before the end of this year in preparation for a more prosperous new year!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and please share with those that you feel it would be helpful. If you or someone you know is in the position of having more money at the end of the year and needs to use it or lose it, please pass along this post and feel free to contact me by phone (800)725-1867 or email at slassiter@thinkbigsites.com. Thanks again!

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