Over dinner and drinks, a mentor laughingly remembered a marketing promotion from my days in real estate sales.

You see, while I was in college and a couple years after, I was a residential real estate broker in Greensboro, NC. As a “farming” technique, I sent introductory notes with magnetized business cards to all of my college’s faculty. To this day, dozens of Guilford College faculty probably still have my face plastered somewhere in their office.

While I laugh at it now, the personal nature of marketing myself as a Realtor taught me a valuable lesson. Sometimes, particularly in the real estate industry, personal marketing can be seen as annoying, but to me it’s simply an efficient way to communicate with friends, family, or the general public. That’s really all marketing is: thoughtful communication to an audience with a bit of polish. That’s why I have this blog. That’s why I love “web 2.0″ technologies and the business enhancing possibilities they hold. It’s a way to share your passion.

My passion is in facilitating communication through info systems or marketing messages. Yours may be something completely different, but share that passion and share what’s important to you with the general public in some way. Call it personal promotion; call it marketing. Whatever it’s called, it feels good to do.