Social Media Observatory

The following is a guest post from someone I admire a great deal. Chris Guillebeau is out there doing some amazing things in the world of helping others design lifestyle businesses. His latest book, The $100 Startup (amazon affiliate link), is worth grabbing, too! 

It’s everyone’s fantasy. When you think about imaginary superpowers, you first wish for the ability to fly—doesn’t everyone? Then you wish for the power of invisibility,…

I’ve been a long-time supporter of MediaTemple’s (MT)Residence program along with Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, and many others whom I respect. I wanted to share my “8 questions to answer to become a social business”

Have you spent the past week studying the nuts and bolts of the new Gmail interface? Or have you been preoccupied with the space shuttle Enterprise‘s final flight to New York City (and the absurd memes that came along with it)? Fo

Are you a collector? If so, of what? I’m not, but I know the culture. I grew up reading comic books and buying music and haunting bookstores. in all cases, there’s always a sub-tribe of collectors, the kind who scour bins, som

This post was written in April 2012. I’m just dating it so we can check in later and see if it’s still good. Yes, like a freshness date. If I were a business person looking to understand how to use various digital chan

The digital landscape continues to undergo a significant shift that will have profound effects on business this year. The challenge is that hardly any business leaders noticed. That’s not their fault however. Even through the impact of t

When I post something new to this blog, I make the effort to go onto Twitter and ask a question that leads back to the post. I also do some things to get people’s attention via Google+. It’s become part of what every media mak

Games are everywhere.More and more businesses are using gamification to create brand awareness and drive user engagement.Gartner, Inc. predicts that more than 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified applicati

Numbers are a tricky business. I was just thinking about Twitter, and asking myself what would make it more valuable. I’m curious if you agree on these ideas, so I thought I’d put it out: Stats I Want from Twitter and

I get a variation on this email quite often: “I wish there was a job in social media for _____, because I’m really skilled in _____.” What’s fascinating is that the person is waiting for permission, and worse, wait