Date: July 2012

Have you ever thought about what your website is really used for? Why people are visiting it in the hundreds, thousands, ten's of thousands?

One of my clients yesterday said to me that they Google searched an obscure term, and Marketing Eye came up. He was surprised, but I guess, not as surprised as I was.

A website, if it is search engine optimised, comes up on search engines. That is the purpose. Right? You invest all of this money, time and effort into ensuring that your website comes up trumps when prospects, clients and stakeholders are looking for your company or a company that provides your products or services.

But who else visits your website and why?

There were 9.66m tweet in the first day of the London 2012 Olympics, surpassing the Beijing 2008 Olympics total in just 24 hours.

In fairness, Twitter was just a startup then, so our timelines were not flooded as they are today and there was no colossal 340 million tweet per day. But this microblogging site is mammoth when it comes to bringing us the news faster and and more efficiently than any other medium in sound bites that most of us can understand. It also gives us choice as to whether we wish to read more or not.

Sometimes, life doesn't go as planned. And that is ok.

As we continue to embark on the journey of life, we will experience it in it's enormity. Sometimes we will be so happy, we will literally want to pinch ourselves. Other times, we will be grateful and know that we are lucky to be in the position in life that we are in. There will be times where we will be sad and disheartened, but those, we hope will be few and far between. They will only help us build character and learn what we want out of life and what we do not.

I have had a few days of being disappointed by someone else's actions. But that's ok. They are living their life and I am living mine and at the end of the day, it's their life to live and we can only choose our own paths and learn the lessons we need to learn from our own experiences.

I couldn't help but reminisce about the movie with Julia Roberts as a photographer in Step Mom. Do you remember the shoot where the fat, short catering guy is surrounded by beautiful models?

This billboard caught my attention. Very stylish, just like the product. I loved where this Dolce and Gabbana Billboard was positioned in the Milan Airport. What do you think?

Travelling from Milan to Australia via Dubai on Emirates the other day, I noticed this billboard. Literally, hundreds of people looked up at it and stared. Amazing impact. What do you think?

It's an interesting concept. Does your lack of trust hold you back in business? You may ask me "what do you mean by that?"

Ever wondered why people soak up every word that a truly successful person says? Or why, they seem to do less talking than the person engaging with them in conversation?

Successful people are unique. They don't need to buy a Ferrari (or any other car like this - if you get my gist)  to show that they have money, nor will they order the most expensive wine in a restaurant. They typically do not wear obvious designer briefs and they never tell you how good they are or what accomplishments they have made.

Instead, they listen attentively, ask questions and put the spotlight on others.

Retailers that have not adopted a strategic social media strategy that has as much weighing in their marketing budget as their traditional media spend, are at risk of not only losing marketshare but also staying alive as a business.

Retailers were slower to discover the benefits of using bloggers and affiliate sites to reach their target audience, but those who have taken seriously the trend that has absorbed the world in the past five years of social media engagement are seeing a lower cost marketing platform that is complemented by a more loyal and trusted customer base.

I have a conspiracy theory relating to the latest blockbuster novel "50 Shades of Grey".

If you have spent any time at all reading any of the three novels in the series, you would realize that other than a basic storyline, it is all about porn. Albeit soft.

1.5 million people have already read this book. I have read it. My friends have read it. It is addictive and completely trashy, but let's face it - women love this type of stuff. Look at how successful Mills and Boons was and still is.

My theory though, having read two of the New York Times Bestseller Trilogy series, that the book was commissioned by a large chain or perhaps online sex store. Bare with me as I explain...

Success means different things to different people. I have said this before in my marketing blogs and I will say it again. To some, it means having a happy and healthy life. Others, it means how much money they make or how the world views their achievements. For me, it is something that I am completely unsure of.

To be honest, I am told often that "I am successful". But the reality is that I don't feel successful. It's a benchmark that for me, I am yet to achieve.