I had the pleasure of talking with author Phil Simon this morning. His latest book, The Age of the Platform, looks at four 21st-century powerhouse companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) which have managed to grow big while keeping their competitive edges and...
Is Internet access a human right? A United Nations special report last June on "the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression" talks about the indispensable nature of the Internet: "Given that the Internet has become an indispensable...
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that "the rich are different from you and me." (And Ernest Hemingway, unblinded by bling, is said to have replied, "Yes, they have more money.) Turns out, when it comes to marketing, money doesn't seem to yield a big advantage. According...
I caught up on back issues of Wired this weekend. Good writing is underrated, and this magazine has some of the best. Plus, where else can you read about behavioral feedback loops, hackers, a kerfuffle over a hijacked copy of a video game, and Harry Potter in the same...
British Airways has apparently never heard of Gerry McGovern. McGovern won my heart when I heard him describe what Google's home page would look like if it were a typical corporate home page. (Think "Hi, I'm Sergey" and "Latest News: Announcing Google+"). Google knows...
So much of customer service should be easy, and yet companies screw it up every day. A new survey by Consumer Reports finds that the top three gripes of customers are the inability to reach a human on the phone, phone trees, and rude salespeople. Rounding out the top...
We talk a lot about the "big 5" social media platforms (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr). But the conversation universe is a much bigger place, and there are other platforms, channels, and tools that just might make sense for your business too. Here are...
From a business point of view, I never feel as helpless as when something goes wrong with my Web site. I am fine with DOS, but SQL and PHP just stump me. Maybe it's because I've yet to find a For Dummies book that walks me through how to do this stuff. And, yes,...
Are you using SlideShare? In addition to leading a session on captivating content at the Frederick New Media and Technology Conference last week, I also had the opportunity to present a 3-minute, 101 overview of the presentation-sharing platform. There are four big...
I had the pleasure of attending the sold-out third annual Frederick New Media and Technology Conference on February 24 (photo of me presenting here). The location was good, the WiFi worked well, and the conversations were awesome. If I had one complaint, it was that...