Now do you believe social connections are currency??

It’s actually fun to watch a hot trend move from hype to something that we simply expect. Big data will get there, hopefully soon, and social media is already arriving at that point. How do we know? Creativity. When the hype passes, the paradigm change has taken place in people’s minds and we start to […]

Twitter: you’ve come a long way, Baby

Ah, Twitter. You and I have had an interesting relationship over the years. More than once, I tried to start using you only to find your streams of information hard to follow and distracting at the same time. You’re unfair, too. While some tweet innocuous nonsense to millions of followers, I see my followers come […]

Connection is the new currency

A coworker shared a LinkedIn function a while back that creates a graphical map of your contacts.  I created my own and marveled at the pretty colors and curving lines.  Other than looking like a new and highly personal art form, what did it mean? Truth be told, I’m still not entirely sure.  Yet I keep […]

I post in private groups, where the real work gets done

A little over a year ago, I had a conversation with the tibbr product manager about his use of the social platform he was guiding through a rapid series of improvements. I was very curious to know why I rarely saw his posts on the corporate social media site, considering his role. He said something […]

What’s wrong with Florida?

Last night we all heard the verdict of the George Zimmerman trial. If you didn’t, you might qualify to be a jury member on a murder trail in Florida (reference: the awful knock knock joke the defense attorney told). This was a trial that took place in a courthouse in Sanford, Florida, but also took […]

Oops! — The week social media exposed lies in Texas and Florida

We’ve had a big week for political news and no matter what side of the aisle you sit on, it’s clear that no one can hide from social media. While we think of social media as a wave of sentiment, it is also a remarkable fact checker in itself, as saw. Gosh, look at the […]

Integration is everything in a mobile, social, cloud and big data world

We live in a world where business is moving faster each and every day. The time frames of the pre-Internet age where phones and fax were the norm would seem impossibly slow today. Unfortunately, it’s worse than that. While the speed of business picks up, there are new challenges that make managing information and decisions […]

Email is Tyrannosaurus Rex: feared and soon to be extinct

We all use email whether we want to or not. Nearly everyone relies on it as much as many of us hate it and we mostly use it because everyone else does. An interactive presentation in Harvard Business Review this month by Barry Gill made the statement, “Email: Not Dead, Evolving.” Being in the ’email […]

I’m 2.5% Neanderthal, but that’s not my story

If you weren’t already aware, having a story beats having data in almost every situation. In business we love ‘ROI’ but the true bottom line is that facts aren’t everything and a great story is far more powerful and evocative in the human brain that reams of data. A few months ago I wrote about […]

Ouch, I think I just broke my social media

Believe it or not, we’re now a decade into the concept of mainstream social media. It was May 2003 when LinkedIn first hit the Web and it was only 2004 when Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg. It was only seven years ago, 2007 to be exact, when Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet from […]

Your website is the library…social media is the newsstand

Most companies don’t understand how to manage their websites versus their social media content. And its a shame…they’re missing the great one-two punch of marketing. If you’re thinking of replacing your website with social media, stop. If you think your website can be a collection of social media pages, you’re wrong. Website advantages Your website […]

Turkey, Cheerios, racism and persecution

We’re a biracial couple and even though I hate that word, I love the fact that my husband and I come from very diverse cultural backgrounds and are not at all similar in physical appearance. I think our recent baby has the best of both of us and hopefully will grow up without experiencing prejudice […]

Turkey’s Prime Minister and that pesky social media

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has officially blamed, drunks, extremists and Twitter for the ills that Turkey is facing with protestors in Taksim Gezi Square. Drunks, maybe…extremists, possibly…but Twitter? Isn’t that like blaming smoke signals for Custer’s Last Stand. It feels like a serious mix-up of cause and effect. “Worst menace to society” Erdogan […]

My life is not for sale

The following is a first guest post by Hailey Taylor. I love the “Vlog Brothers”…Hank and John Green. John is my favorite author and Hank is just really smart. Hank talked recently about how companies get valued and the bidding wars for Tumblr and other social sites. It made me laugh because I knew exactly […]

A new user’s assessment of Asana’s productivity tool

This review was a collaboration between myself, Ron Webb, and John Tesmer (@johngtesmer). One of the teams I work on recently started a test of Asana, a product touted as “…the next big step in productivity”. We were looking for tools to help us manage the work we do on a regular basis. I’ll put […]

Got a goal? Live it every day

I just completed one of the most inspiring runs of my life. Not fast.  Not far.  But it left me with a lesson I’ll carry forever. So how does this relate to business?  We’ll get there.  Just stick with me… Running with a purpose This morning I shared a pre-dawn jog with Kathy DeFrancisco on […]