Well, I’m back from vacation. We had a great week in San Diego! I tried to keep up with some of my reading (and sharing some ideas and tips). Well, ok, I mixed that in with other fun stuff like the beach and the San Diego Zoo and La Jolla and…..

Anyway, here are some of the coolest things I read (and some ideas I shared) over the last week or so. Happy reading!

• This is a good article about how Dave & Busters’ growth strategy of new menu items, new tech, new games appears to be working: bit.ly/1Yh4IIn
• It’s one thing to serve customers well. It’s a whole lot different to get them excited about your company. This article discusses how showing that extra level of love and support can create excited customers: entm.ag/1XJzWZU
• This info graphic highlights some good tips to remember when building your brand: bit.ly/1VPxOhy
• Have you heard about the Bullet Journal method top stay organized? I haven’t tried it. This article tells you all about it: on.inc.com/1OfxO8I
• Several bids for Yahoo seem to be coming in above the $5 billion mark: read.bi/1UFnseE
• This article gives a pretty good reminder that certain words can (and do) get overused. Are you using any of these buzzwords? ow.ly/ZYPz3011B5H
• Building online trust is important to your brand. This article gives some ideas on how to earn that trust: ow.ly/sBlc3011yLK
• This is an interesting infographic about why Trader Joe’s and Costco have the highest customer loyalty: ow.ly/GpLy3011AmO
• B2B blogs are pretty hard to get traction on. This is a great article on how to develop a B2B blog that works: ow.ly/GmZx3011ylN
• Sometimes as an early-stage (or even more mature) company, things don’t always go as planned. It’s important to know when to let go of the stuff that isn’t working. In this article there are some good tips from someone who’s been there: tcrn.ch/214GKz2
• This article shares some great ideas about why content marketing is so important: on.inc.com/25JQ9CE
• Int his article Dropbox’s CEO talks about how to build a company culture as an engineer would. Interesting perspective: bit.ly/1WCN0Q3
• Creativity is so crucial in today’s business environment. In this article, the author suggests that there are some habits that might be killing your creativity: on.inc.com/1UDaHEr
• Rebranding can be a great idea. But consider the backlash that can occur. This article shares some ideas for what to look for: bit.ly/1U08hQi
• MailChimp is now helping small business incorporate recommendations into the emails they send. This article shares how that will work: bit.ly/1WBr87K
• In this article the author describes how Facebook Messenger could change the way banking might get done: bit.ly/1r9iO14

Last week I was focused quite a bit about how to set our companies apart from the competition. What makes a brand stand out? I feel like there are three levels we have to take our relationships with the market through – awareness, likability, and then trust. Here are some tips I shared related to that:

• Instead of just answering questions, look for ways to engage customers in more in-depth discussions and conversations.
• When making your target market aware of your brand – but in a positive way. Is YOUR brand likable?
• On a regular basis, measure customer trust and loyalty in your brand
• To help define your brand, you have to start by raising awareness among a well-defined target market.

And right here on the blog I wrote my latest post all about that topic too. I hope you will give it a read and let me know what you think: Building Your Brand With ALT.