A quick glance outside is not a regrettable one today in Upstate New York. If my blog could have a bumper sticker, it would say, "I'd rather be on the beach." But mid-June is still a little early for beaches in the Finger Lakes - this is more like wine tour weather. Or blogging weather.

If you watched the video in my previous post, you would have learned a little about Jared Campbell's 'Blue Project,' where he encourages students to metaphorically look for streaks of blue when the sky seems perpetually gray. Today is a day where it's impossible to miss the blue.

For the past couple days, I've been presenting to artists and business leaders on the importance of inbound marketing. I noticed at times that they were searching for those streaks of blue to latch onto; the ideas they could wrap their minds around. But the big truth is that they were really trying to understand the technology and language behind the commonly-used social media sites (facebook, twitter, youtube, and linkedin). As I watched them frantically jot down the definition of a "hash tag" and make notes on the differences between personal facebook pages and fan pages, I realized that there was too much emphasis on the technology.

I'm a huge proponent of content - and so are the search engines. I do not believe that the 'medium is the message.' Social media, especially, is just a way to deliver the message. So I stopped my presentation to calm everyone's nerves by stressing the importance of their content, which came easy to them.

It's easy to hire someone who can build you a fan page and manage your Twitter account. It's hard to find a marketing expert to incorporate your overall brand into an online strategy. Make sure you know which one you need.