Analytics are for cowards

“Fear is a great motivator.” Art Bell Just like the brain has two incongruous hemispheres that somehow work together so that each of us can walk in a straight line (some of the time), two types of people operate businesses. Good organizations need both. Without intuitive, creative visionaries, who understand what motivates and satisfies people, … C’mon read the rest.

Ask yourself, “What problem can social media solve?”

Is social media (or any media for that matter) inherently good or bad, value rich or worthless? If you spend any time following experts and pundits (thanks to social media, everyone’s an expert and pundit), you have to wonder whether any business can survive without blogging, tweeting, optimizing or networking.  Some extreme digital evangelists recommend … C’mon read the rest.

A social media success story about Google’s top-ranked Willie Jackson and me

Scanning blogs, forums, e-newsletters and the like, every day I notice people wondering: “How do you measure the value of social media?” “Can social media generate sales leads?” “Is social media the future of marketing?” Here’s my story. Not long after launching my eponymous Ribblog, I posted a question about Word Press plug-ins on an … C’mon read the rest.

A shout out for digital billboards

Despite constantly swimming in cyberspace, I was shocked by the revelation that new media go beyond Web x.0, mobile messaging, and other vehicles that enable marketers (and people you know) to make contact every waking moment. Yesterday, I went outdoors and ventured onto the highway where, for the first time, I began to think about … C’mon read the rest.

Viral’s milestone moment was a Hollywood remake

Media and hype are inseparable. They are like flowers and bees. The flower always attracts the bee, which needs it to produce food.  The bee returns the favor by helping the flower reproduce.  The hype-bee has no appetite for a media-flower unless it is wildly different from every flower that has ever existed.  This is … C’mon read the rest.

Let’s put “Social Networking” out of “Business”

10/21/2011 — When drafting this article, I had begun to grasp the enhanced importance of every different meaning of every word in digital media.  More than 50 comments on the theme in LinkedIn groups, confirmed that I had hit a nerve but also convinced me that the statement just brushed a little dust off an … C’mon read the rest.