Celebrity endorsements are nothing new. In the era of social media however, celebrities now possess the ability to reach people in online networks. The difference now is that static or passive audiences have become interactive and more importantly, people have become stakeholders in the media where connect and socialize. Celebrities are presented with opportunities to engage people on a peer-to-peer level. Doing so changes the dynamics of the relationship from a hierarchical celebrity-to-fan association to a flattened person-to-person connection. It…
Blame It on the Youth
If you want to know where the future is headed, sometimes telling clues reside in how the youth of the world interact and share with one another. With the rise of the Golden Triangle of technology, mobile, social, and real-time, technology is not just for the geeks, technology is part of our lifestyle…it is part of who we are. However, as we are all coming to learn, it’s not in what we have, it’s in how we use it that…
The Curation Economy and The 3C’s of Information Commerce
Several years ago I had the privilege of working with Steve Rosenbaum, author of Curation Nation. Back then Steve was already vested in the future of online curation and his grande conquête was playing out with Magnify.net, a realtime video curation network. At the time, he was also a staple at some of the tech industry’s most renown conferences sharing his vision for social, video, and curated content. As Steve was completing his new book, he asked if I would…
Social Media ROI: ROI Doesn’t Stand for Return on Ignorance
My good friend Olivier Blanchard recently released his new book, Social Media ROI, Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization. As he was nearing its completion, he asked if I would write the foreword and to be honest, I was flattered. I agreed to do so under one condition, that I get the opportunity to share the foreword with you here. Long story short, here we are. The book is extremely helpful and carries the endorsements of those…
The Games Businesses Play with Customers
Part four in a four-part series on innovation and change as the new schools of business management… As a child, you most likely played two very popular playground games, dodge ball and four square. If you’re an adult who is also an early adopter of emerging mobile applications, chances are you play them once again. The difference is that this time a mobile phone takes the place of a ball and it’s usually not hurling toward you. Dennis Crowley knows…
Engage 2.0 is Now Online and in a Bookstore Near You
I’ve some great news to share with you! One year after its official release Engage 2.0 is now available… If you just bought the original Engage, don’t worry, this book doesn’t replace it. Engage 2.0 is a different book with a different purpose. When it came time to release Engage in paperback I was asked if there were any changes I wanted to make before going to press. The answer was an emphatic yes. I took this opportunity not because…
6 Ways Social Media Helps Your Presentation Resonate
Guest post by Nancy Duarte, founder of Duarte, author of Resonate and Slide:ology. Follow her on Twitter and read her blog. Social media has forced presentations to become an interactive conversation. Presenters who embrace audience participation are connecting their audiences to their ideas in a more meaningful way. Using social media as a connection tool goes beyond just looking at the twitter feed to assess if you were boring or not. There are six ways to utilize social media while…
Zappos’ Tony Hsieh Delivers Happiness Through Service and Innovation
Part three in a four-part series on innovation and change as the new schools of business management… To call Zappos an online shoe store takes away from the brilliance behind the 12-year-old e-commerce powerhouse. While its original premise was based on helping people find the shoes they want, in one place, online, and discounted, it certainly evolved into something nothing short of disruptive. As we hear so often with technology startups, Zappos was born in a college dorm room. Already…
How do you increase social influence? Don’t think about the score
Influence: The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself. Digital influence is a controversial topic. At the heart of the matter is this idea of influence and it raises questions and doubts as to whether or not the ability to cause effect or change behavior is truly measurable. Regardless of the answer, we are introduced to a new reality of social networking, an era where our actions and…
The Bank of Facebook: How will Facebook interact in the global economy?
What follows is a guest post by Venessa Miemis…I’ve asked her to share insights from a developing research project she’s currently leading, The Future of Facebook Project. I recently took part in the project as I believe this discussion is more relevant than we currently imagine. There has been much speculation recently about the role Facebook Credits could play in becoming a global virtual currency, and even the possibility of Facebook becoming a bank. In many ways, it already is…
