You probably didn’t know that early ’90s rap star MC Hammer (remember those pants?) is actually a savvy marketer and entrepreneur. An avid Twitterer with over 134,000 followers, Hammer was recently interviewed on HubSpot TV and shared the following nuggets of wisdom:

• Social media is an extension of what we do naturally, just on a different platform.
• Use technology/the web to cut out the middle man and deliver your message directly to the customer, then let them decide if and when they want to consume it.
• On Twitter: forget trying to get new followers and don’t be concerned with the number. Just stay interesting.
• Even in a recession, companies have opportunities to be more creative to survive what the economy throws at them.

You can see videos of Hammer’s interview at the blog post from HubSpot.

Back in January, we re-launched the Virginia Favorites web site.  Virginia Favorites sells Virginia peanuts and other gourmet items from our wonderful state. I developed their first web site in 1997 — my first foray into e-commerce. It was redesigned again on the Yahoo Merchant Services platform in 2002, and the 2009 iteration is built on a new e-commerce system.

In addition to totally redesigning the visual appeal of the web site, we added many new features to improve functionality and customer service.

• Better coupon codes
  Virginia Favorites can now offer a variety of coupon codes and easily control expiration, overlapping codes and more.
• “My Account”
  Loyal customers no longer have to enter all of their information in at checkout — most personal information is stored securely on the site, including a catalog of commonly-used addresses for shipping.
• Order status and tracking
  After a customer places an order, they can instantly find out the status of their order, and if it has shipped, can get a direct link to track the package while in transit.
• Streamlined checkout flow
  Checking out is a 2-step process, and cleaning up the process and shortening it has led to big increases in conversion rate.
• Recently viewed items
  If a customer clicks away from a product and wants to go back, the site stores the three most recently viewed items for easy access.

You can see the new web site (and buy something) at VaPeanuts.com.

Last night, I live-tweeted the Refresh Richmond meeting on Twitter and wanted to share the notes from this talk here on the blog.  The topic was “Pro Blogging: A Panel Discussion” with John and Sherry Petersik of ThisYoungHouse.com, Arnold Kim of MacRumors.com and Jeff Kelley of Capital Results and Tobacco Avenue.

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Happy Monday! Over the last couple of days, we’ve covered the debate over SEO vs. PPC, why companies should think like customers when they set up their campaigns, and we’ve learned the most common mistakes that companies make when setting up their own campaigns.

In this final installment, pay per click expert Matt DeYoung will share landing page tips and pay per click tools, then discuss the rising cost of pay per click marketing and alternatives to Google Adwords.

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Yesterday, I introduced you to Matt DeYoung, and he weighed in on the SEO vs. PPC debate. Matt also talked about how small businesses need to closely examine why prospective customers would buy their product/service before setting up their pay per click campaign.

In today’s installment, I ask Matt what common mistakes are being made by small businesses that set up their own pay per click campaigns.

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A few weeks ago, I found pay-per-click specialist Matt DeYoung on Twitter.  He offered to answer any pay-per-click question that anyone could throw his way.  I took him up on it, and we ended up on the phone talking about an upcoming campaign that I was planning for a client. During the call, he had a lot of tips to offer, so I invited him to share them here on my blog.  Here’s what he had to say.

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