Guy Kawasaki talks about how to be enchanting!

I recently attended the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston. I had been looking for Guy’s session online, but haven’t been able to find it. However, the video attached is a very close representation to what he talked about when I saw him. It is valuable for business and in life. Cheers to crows feet!


Another good idea from Warren Buffet

My sincerest apologies for not posting here in awhile. I have been knee deep in working on couple new websites fro EDR and getting married. As such, I was much too busy to do something as selfish as blogging. ;) Anyways, the following idea from Warren Buffet was in my In-Box 8 times this morning. 8 times over night? I would call that viral…wouldn’t you? Another example of invaluable content is truly king. Lesson: Don’t just post for the sake of posting, think about your brand and what is valuable to the end users. If you do that and create value…you win.

Here is Warren Buffet’s great idea. Please share and pass it along if you agree. Happy Halloween everyone!

Subject: another good idea from Warren Buffet
Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the
best quotes about the debt ceiling:
“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told CNBC. “You just
pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more
than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible
for re-election”.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds)
took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple!
The people demanded it. That was in 1971 – before computers, e-mail,
cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year
or less to become the law of the land – all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to
a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask
each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will
have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed
around.

_*Congressional Reform Act of 2011*_

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social
Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and
participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the
American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their
term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will
only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive
the message. Don’t you think it’s time?

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.
You are one of my 20+ – Please keep it going, and thanks.


Infographic on Mobile Usage in 4 Years

I came across this graphic. If your organization is not using mobile, or considering using mobile, look at this Infographic on projected data usage via mobile in the coming years. Wouldn’t your company want a cut of those stacks? Can your company afford to not try? I feel like this document is game, set, match for those organizations on the fence about mobile. It is a no brainer!

mobile usage forecast


Age Demographics For Social Media Usage

Social Media is not a tool for young people to interact. Want proof? Noodle on this fine document.


Cliffnotes from Cloudforce Boston 2011


Last week I had the opportunity to attend Cloudforce 2011 in Boston. Below you will find some of the main notes I took from the event, and some keynote video. I hope you find it valuable.

Cloudforce 2011 Cliffnotes

  1. Create standards for protecting your customer within the cloud.
  2. Ask if it is a private cloud – “cloud is not cloud if it is not public”. Beware of the false cloud- private clouds are not real
  3. Today there are more people using social networking then email. 760 million email users. 1 billion social users.
  4. Facebook is shrinking the Internet- 22% of the Internet usage is Facebook according to Nielsen/McKinnsey
  5. 3 steps to being a social enterprise:
    1. Connect and engage to social networks

    2. Create a  private social network
    3. Make all your apps and solutions mobile
  6. GNC is creating products to the voice of the customer. Assigning dollar value to every brand innovation to qualify the investment.

Marc Benioff’s Keynote – 3 Steps To Become A ‘Social Enterprise”

Downloadable Documents

Access the latest white papers, datasheets, ROI studies, training information, and more.

PRODUCT DATASHEETS

WHITEPAPERS

CASE STUDIES AND SNAPSHOTS

BOOKS

PRESS ARTICLES & AWARDS


Scoville vs Foursquare. What Are The Differences?

  vs

I have been peppered with requests to join Scoville over the last week. So I did. I was met with the following process:

1) Scoville Messaging

Welcome to Scoville #beta,

Our mission is to help our users discover at least one great new place every week. We’ll make it extremely simple for you to share the places you really love, the places you believe the community should know about.

We’re now opening our private beta to Foursquare users, so if you’re passionate about your city and want to share awesomeness around you, join the beta now!

2) Scoville – Adding some buds!

After reading about who they are, I signed in with Foursquare, added my friends already on Scoville from Foursquare. Then invited the others who had not signed up yet. Then I did the same with Facebook and Twitter. Nothing earth shatter and new yet!

3) #TopTuesday

#TopTuesday is the main way Scoville  engages its members and pulls in new ones. Each week members pick a favorite location to be their #toptuesday pick, and the each Tuesday Scoville (once you have granted Twitter access) sends out a tweet about your #toptuesday pick, and invites other folks to join Scoville. Any tips you’ve left are included so your friends can see what you recommended to them. Essentially you are making recommendations to followers (no different then Foursquare) while driving a Trending Topic (#toptuesday) on Twitter (which only really helps Scoville).

4) Twitter Post Prompting

You are prompted to tweet borderline offensive things to get noticed about joining Scoville.  Would you tweet this? “Had some dodgy Indian food, now stuck in the bathroom. Next time I go Scoville” You are asked to tweet this so Scoville can degrade your personal brand while pushing their own cause?

6) Scoville – Unlock Your City?

You can’t unlock your city until 1000 Scoville users are  signed up for Scoville at that location. Why may I ask?

Is there an opportunity for business here? Yes, so there it is. It was smart of Scoville to use Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook’s API to login.  However, other then doing something on every Tuesday in Scoville for your business, what is the value? Brands should be jumping into relevant #hashtags everyday anyway. In the end, does Scoville do anything that Foursquare really doesn’t? I am concerned it doesn’t have enough differentiation from what already exists to go gaga over. I want to like Scoville, cause some serious thought was put into the user experience. But sadly, it just doesn’t differ enough for me to invest more time in it. I will stick to foursquare! Sorry big S. But kudos for the hook….

Please feel free to disagree with me and show me the light. I am happy to be proved wrong.


Live Twitter Timeline Of Osama Bin Laden’s Death – We Are All Reporters!

I found this completely fascinating to read the real time Twitter thread during the US attack on Osama Bin Laden’s Outpost. News reporting truly has changed! This event staples home, that at any given moment, we are all on the spot to report what is happening around us. You and I are now officially news reporters. No pressure!

Check out the full thread:


CMO.com’s Guide To Social Media Landscape – Updated For 2011

If you are new to Social Media, or concerned about SEO and don’t know where to post content to drive your SEO efforts, then this graph will be your best bud. Thanks to @rebeccaslosberg and @janetaronica for passing along. Great graph for Social Media newbies.

Click the image to enlarge & download


Record Label Uses “All You Can Eat” Subscription Monetization Model

The music industy is continuing to adapt using Social Media. Have a gander at this:

B9 Changes The Way Their Artists Are Consumed

Bridge Nine Records announced today that their new “premium” account is LIVE now!  Members of the label’s social networking community, TheB9.com, can now access Bridge Nine’s entire catalog (100+ albums, new and old), have their own URL on TheB9.com, make playlists, hide/show users and features, and much more for the low cost of only $4/month or $30/year ($2.50/month!).  Label owner Chris Wrenn commented, “The way people access music is continually changing.  By launching this streaming player, we’re trying to change with it and meet the needs of our bands fans by not only making all of their music and releases more accessible, but to also by giving people an inexpensive way to show their support.  On top of that, we’ve added bonus features on TheB9.com as gratitude for those who upgrade to the premium account with many more features to be announced soon – including Bridge Nine exclusives and limited edition items.  Very exciting stuff.”

Since their inception in 1995, Bridge Nine Records has turned from a hobby to one of the biggest and best music brands in the world and is owned and operated independently to this day. What was once a one-man operation has grown into a nine-person full-time operation headquartered in Peabody, MA (just outside the label’s original home in Boston) with affiliates and distributors worldwide.  The label launched their offshoot messageboard/social networking site, TheB9.com (previously known as B9Board.com) in 2002, and today boasts over 80,000 members in the community.  In addition to being a messageboard, TheB9.com is also a recognized music news portal, marketplace (buy/sell/trade), tour database, photo gallery and more.

For more information, check out www.Bridge9.com or www.TheB9.com/premium-account.

Could this be a trend, and the beginning of a new way to cost effectively consume media, while still supporting the artists? Seems like a win win for all parties- if its scalable for the label. Will the revenue allow the label to do what they have traditionally done to support artists? Will the label get enough volume to make it worthwhile? This is a case study worth following……


Get The Cliffnotes of #SXSW

Feeling guilty about not attending South By Southwest (SXSW)? Dont! If you follow any event’s #hashtag you will receive the following:

  1. Cliff note quotes
  2. Slide decks via Slideshare
  3. Recordings, video and podcasts of the event sessions
  4. White papers and PDF’s
  5. Invaluable new Twitter and LinkedIn professionals to follow

Honestly, outside of the networking and vendor showcase, I rarely feel the need to attend any event, including SXSW. Would it be cool to attend SXSW? Yes and I probably will, but ultimately I dont feel like I am missing out. Look at my right RSS feed for SXSW…follow the giant green arrow! See it?

Follow that RSS and check it about 2 weeks after SXSW. Everything you could possibly want will be there to get you caught up. If I am wrong, let me have it.  ;) As for other events, I encourage you to try this with events you cant attend, but want to. Just be sure to keep an eye peeled for session #hastags. Most them will have sub hashes- so be aware of that.


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