Disqus - Latest Comments for douglaskarr

Re: Does Google Allow Two Business Profiles at the Same Address?

Douglas Karr — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 16:35:17 -0000

Working with auto dealerships, they're actually in the same industry despite having two totally different corporations - one for car sales, the other for parts and service. We advise our clients to update their postal address with a suite or office number for each company that's registered. We haven't run into issues with Google at this point, and I don't believe it violates the terms of service but we've not had luck in getting feedback yet.

Re: The first hiatus: Why I’m taking a break from blogging

Douglas Karr — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 16:45:03 -0000

Rest well, sir!

Re: I was saved by my personal brand

Douglas Karr — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 08:48:17 -0000

Amen! First... it's an amazing book that I literally have bought dozens of copies of for friends and family. Second, it absolutely represents my journey. Content that I wrote and shared for free a decade ago has generated the prosperity I have today. I think too many people think about what they can do tomorrow to get rich or famous. Invest the time today so that ten years from now you're happy and prosperous instead.

Re: What is the future of conferences and public speaking?

Douglas Karr — Mon, 11 May 2020 10:49:05 -0000

Absolutely - I believe that's one of those baselines. I'd love to see every venue/event stock swag bags with instructions, hand-cleaner, and masks. And, I think companies should have every right to require attendees to follow their precautions. Thanks for sharing this, Mark.

Re: What is the future of conferences and public speaking?

Douglas Karr — Mon, 11 May 2020 09:29:22 -0000

It's good to see some optimism here. After decades in business, I know how important in-person is to be inspired, to focus, to feel. It's critical in business and education settings and is exponentially better than a video call. I also hold out hope, too, that there will be some kind of regulatory reform when it comes to events and their responsibility to their physical attendees. While every venue should have a baseline of safety, I don't think we can put the responsibility of stopping a contagion on those organizations. The insurance and requirements alone would make any conference too expensive and could bankrupt any company as a carrier arrives unbeknownst to the organizer or venue. As a business traveler, I know what I need to do to remain healthy and reduce my risk of getting ill. We must be accountable for our own health.

Re: What a Peanut Can Teach You About Search Marketing

Douglas Karr — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 13:20:54 -0000

One of the things you said resonated, "Is SEO Dead?". I think there are absolutely aspects of the organic search industry that are dead... backlink farms and unscrupulous consultants trying to game search engine algorithms. "Is SEO Dead from a consumer standpoint?" Absolutely not - to your point, optimizing your digital presence is an imperative. The difference is that marketers should be optimizing for the consumer and NOT the algorithm. That absolutely supports the premise of your article here. Great article!

Re: Why there is no first mover advantage in social media

Douglas Karr — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 10:27:16 -0000

Great points. And no doubt we've seen companies jump head first into some really wasteful waters. Google+ anyone? :D

Re: Why there is no first mover advantage in social media

Douglas Karr — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 09:25:40 -0000

That's an interesting take. I often feel compelled to be an early adopter because there's not a lot of competition, so I'm more likely to be seen and followed. This is definitely a fact when it came to Twitter and blogging for me... I don't think there's any way I would have the following that I have today if I hadn't have been a "first mover". I do appreciate the nuanced approach to "fast follower"... but that's a difficult time to predict. Is it when there are 100 people in your industry there? A thousand? A million?

Re: The ultimate privacy betrayal: Your smartphone is cheating on you

Douglas Karr — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 18:30:32 -0000

One key recommendation that your article is missing is the use of dual or double authentication. Every key service that I utilize requires me to use my login, password, and then a texted code to my mobile device.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker®

Douglas Karr — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 15:46:00 -0000

I'd really love the opportunity to do this presentation, I think it will be absolutely invaluable to audience members who have struggled with gaining traction on acquisition, retention, and building value with their fintech clients.

Re: The Death of Google Search Traffic and What It Means for Marketers

Douglas Karr — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 08:07:18 -0000

Me thinks thou dost make a premature prediction of doom. A reduced trend for “social media” is simply that less people need to figure it out. I do think diversification of content strategies and working to build your own community are always great strategies.

Re: Your price determines your brand

Douglas Karr — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 11:33:58 -0000

Low prices are simply a race to the bottom with no room to wiggle. He'd be forced to cut corners on virtually every aspect of supporting that product, eating all of the value that he's developed in his core brand. Kudos to you for providing him with this forward-thinking approach.

Re: State bets tax breaks will lead to influx of data centers

Douglas Karr — Tue, 14 May 2019 11:49:50 -0000

It should have been noted in this article that Lifeline Data Centers was just awarded a patent on their power distribution. As well, they have a huge solar array at the Eastgate location. Their power efficiency is much greater than Iowa data centers because of the innovative systems they've engineered. They're attracting large data centers from around the globe to consult with them on building more efficient data centers.

Re: State bets tax breaks will lead to influx of data centers

Douglas Karr — Tue, 14 May 2019 11:47:27 -0000

Unfortunately, as another commenter pointed out, you missed a huge opportunity in this article to speak about our ability to efficiently cool and avoid disasters. Arizona and Nevada are paying a ridiculous amount of money on cooling that is passed off to their customers. As well, Lifeline Data Centers has an amazing power efficiency with a solar array and a patented power distribution system that should have been mentioned in this article.

Re: Why Home Depot (and your business) needs to re-capture its marketing mojo

Douglas Karr — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 12:12:35 -0000

I find myself looking for small, privately owned businesses because of this as well! I just don’t understand why so many big companies can’t see the “return on relationships”.

Re: No. Not every company needs to take a brand political stand.

Douglas Karr — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 23:11:52 -0000

I'm digging into your book this week! Congratulations, it's a masterpiece!

Re: No. Not every company needs to take a brand political stand.

Douglas Karr — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 09:25:32 -0000

I always feel as though these strategies are immediately viewed at a disadvantage because consumers will always question the hidden motivation that could lurk behind them. While I personally feel most business owners are not focused on the bottom line but serving their customers well, it's still a sticky wicket. Companies always have the option of launching a philanthropic arm that can donate and push social or political causes... instead of adopting stands as a core marketing strategy. Great insight, I hope business owners pay attention!

Re: The ultimate metric for crisis management

Douglas Karr — Sat, 08 Dec 2018 16:33:36 -0000

It's great advice. I'd love to hear what his thoughts are in this day and age of social media. Often, I see companies over-reacting to a social media crisis which disappears in just a few minutes until the next company makes a blunder. That's not to say a company shouldn't respond, I just think many draw more attention and multiply the negative impact rather than really analyzing the issue and the repercussions.

Re: Influencer marketing for small businesses and startups

Douglas Karr — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 17:58:46 -0000

I've been asked to do influencer marketing for many products and services that are outside my area of expertise. I turn them down because I wouldn't ever want to provide advice for something I'm either not interested in nor affiliated with. It took a long time to build a reputation, I don't want to hawk mattresses and throw it all away! Thanks for writing this - I'd love if companies followed your advice.

Re: Why did Nike do what they did?

Douglas Karr — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 06:48:25 -0000

I totally understand your point and really appreciated your Facebook live discussion as well. While I agree that I'm not their target customer, my point was more general about companies. Companies don't have to "pick a side" like politicians want voters to. When it comes to humanity, there really isn't a side.

I recently wrote this regarding the controversy:
"What if I told you that you can love and respect our flag AND despise
police brutality AND support law enforcement AND do not want minorities
to feel marginalized AND none of them require buying nor boycotting a
sneaker?"

I'm not sure that controversy has ever been a great long-term business strategy. I think the marketers at Nike may have great short-term gains on this, but people that disagreed won't forget. Imagine if golfers, for example, left the brand - allowing a competitor to take over. I'm sure that could hurt them for the long term.

As I said, I think they could have avoided the controversy... and, instead, built an amazing value-based campaign to bring awareness to minorities feeling marginalized AS WELL as honoring those who felt that kneeling was controversial. That may have been harder work, though. Jumping on the newsjacking bandwagon is cheap and easy. An example of the opposite is Heineken and how they brought political opposites together in their amazing campaign, "Worlds Apart".

Re: The Content Consistency Imperative

Douglas Karr — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 20:06:18 -0000

Happy Birthday - and thanks for the daily gifts!

Re: The Case Against Storytelling in Content Marketing

Douglas Karr — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 14:31:47 -0000

Thanks for the mention and providing some additional color!

Re: A company in turmoil. Why Snapchat is Wall Street’s new Twitter

Douglas Karr — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:25:46 -0000

Right there with you on that one!

Re: Joe Pulizzi to leave Content Marketing Institute | Crain's Cleveland Business

Douglas Karr — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 01:20:30 -0000

Great to see, Joe! Congratulations on your success and thank you for always being so excited to see me!

Re: What’s The Password?

Douglas Karr — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 20:09:36 -0000

You're absolutely accurate in your analysis of the Indianapolis startup scene, but I'm struggling with how the entrepreneurs who risked starting previous businesses have any culpability in today's scene. I know Chris Baggott, Scott Dorsey, and many of the other investors in town personally. Just like many other startups, they shopped their vision to friends and family to get started.

Contrary to popular opinion, startups do not "require" investors to be successful. Anyone is free to bootstrap their vision and bring a company to market. I started my own company with no money - just a dream (and tons of encouragement from most of the names you listed) and a few large clients (from out of town). Blaming an entrepreneur who was successful for a lack of funding for female startups is, in short, bizarre.

Scott Dorsey is an amazing human being who isn't even from Indianapolis. I'm quite certain he was comfortable enough to move from Indy and have an exceptional life... but he chose to stay and is making his mark on the region surrounding himself with incredible people. That should be commended.

Chris Baggott is transforming our region and his home town. Again, he could have just moved and done fine... but his companies are now changing the food chain - a rather risky but exceptionally rewarding endeavor if you do the research. And having worked for and with Chris, I've always been impressed with the female talent he recruited and had working for him. In fact, Chantelle Flannery was one of his employees who I partnered with to write my book with. I worked for and was surrounded by women when I worked for Compendium.

That said, I've also been critical of the investment scene at times and been very critical of the diversity here in town. For instance, if I were four white males, branding my company of alphas as "High Alpha" probably wouldn't have been my first step. I know that wasn't the intent, but that was the first thing that popped in my head when it launched. I'm guessing it's not helping.

We did a recent podcast with a female business owner who doesn't promote the fact that she's female. When she did, she found that she would only get smaller government and large company contracts. When she removed herself from the company's leadership documentation and sites, she was able to compete and get the larger contracts. That's sad.

So what should we do?

As a community, why not start with the things we CAN control. Let's start with the educational, lobbying, economic and government positions that were created to drive innovation and startups in the region. Why aren't they run by women? We can't change who has the money, but we can change who is influencing the companies, universities, and talent in town.

If we hope to change the makeup of our startup community, getting our great female leaders in high-visibility roles is the first step.