We live in a marketing and branding world where Jack Trout warns us that death is the punishment for companies who do not differentiate. Bloggers are trying hard to get unique or customized blogs to support their online brand. We all strive to promote a special something that’s only ours. But is it really necessary? Is it the only way? Or is the uniqueness also nurtured by something else rather than design or having your product photo recognized by everyone without seeing the logo?

I’ve been thinking lately of some large car manufacturers. Peugeot, Citroen, Ford, Toyota, all strong players in the international market. They all have something in common: producing some small cars, perfect for the city life. But let’s take a closer look at how these cars look like:

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Popularity: 100% [?]

I am finally back from my rather long vacation in Turkey and I was greeted by rain, cold weather, people saying they hate me for having such a vacation (hope they were kidding) and about 8000 spam messages in my work inbox!

It was a long first day on Monday: fighting junk and trying to find the legitimate emails took almost the whole day. At the end, I had about 40 marked for follow up. Then today, after finally completing the to do list, I felt like running back. Thinking of sunny skies, the blue see and great food while seeing the clouds outside and getting scared by the tasks swamping you is extremely counterproductive!

But I am back, with great new plans, a lot of ideas and tons of travel stories that you will soon see published on Travel Spells. It’s been great reconnecting with online friends on their blogs, via messenger or on twitter. I am happy to be back, don’t mind my whining, but it wouldn’t have hurt if I could have stayed a little longer, maybe until the official season closure, November 1st?

Greeting hugs to everyone,

Alina

Popularity: 5% [?]

Guest post by Alex Cristache

The list of blogs and online magazines offering tips and advice has been growing exponentially every year. Even I am the founder of one such “blogging tips” blog.

With all the hype created around this type of blogs and the (in)famous “make money online” blogs, people seem to overlook one significant thing: these blogs offer tips and advice, but encourage you to experiment.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Guest post by Iuliana Butuc-Cerchez

Contacts. This is the word that matters nowadays for a large part of PR professionals and not only for them. That is why social networks were invented, collaboration software was created and so on.

LinkedIn is one of the most loved social networks in the business environment. Unfortunately, some people don’t get it all. I begun to receive almost once a week link in requests from various people I never met or emailed before. Some of them are recruiters. Some of them are sales people. Some of them just work for environmental projects. I’m wondering what’s in their minds before asking for your contacts without even mentioning a mere reason.

Most recently, X from EcoStuff is asking me to connect with him. “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”. Why? Did you meet me somewhere? Have we talked before? If yes, please remind me. If no, please explain why you are interested in my contacts.

Come on! Be a professional if you want to be included in a professional network.

Iuliana Butuc-Cerchez has been the Corporate Affairs Manager of the Gecad Group for over 4 years. She’s an exceptional PR professional and a true mentor for me. Before starting her PR career, she used to be this hard-core IT journalist at one of the best business and financial newspapers in Romania. She’s also a blogger, but as her blog is in Romanian, only part of my readers will be able to enjoy her articles.

Popularity: 10% [?]