I have a love/hate relationship with Walmart.

On the one hand, I admire the company’s business prowess and its efforts to move the needle where social commerce is concerned with its new Walmart Labs division. On the other, coming from a small town I’ve seen first hand the deleterious effect its presence can have on small [...]

“Selling through Facebook (f-commerce) is set to be worth £3.1 billion for UK businesses over the next 3 years, according to new research.” That’s nearly $5 billion in US dollars if my calculations are correct. (source: Digital Strategy Consulting)

The research alluded to in the quote was carried out by global market research firm TNS on [...]

The other day I had an epiphany.

After years working as a social media consultant, trainer, author and speaker, it finally dawned on me just where my passions lie: it’s in a coalescence of small business, social media, and introducing this medium to emerging markets.

Small Business

I am cut from small business cloth. Each of my parents [...]

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Since it appears that most of my posts lately have to do with social media consulting, allow me to pass along a resource I found last week – Invest In Social - an online directory for social media agencies, vendors and consultants. The site was created by SocialFresh, a social media education company. Getting listed in [...]

This is what social media looks like minus a strategy.

It’s a bit like playing pinball. Without a strategy, there is little to guide decisions that you make regarding use of tools or tactics.

GET ‘STRACTICAL’

I’m not suggesting that social media needs its own strategy, but that its use has to be approached strategically. I use the [...]

I really, really like the sound of that. While I don’t mean to be obtuse, I’ve had it with traditional agencies who don’t seem to “get” the impact social media is having. I’m primarily referring to smaller agencies, the type you find in every town.

I’m okay with traditional agencies laying a foundation, but am adamant [...]

This is a detailed analysis of how Facebook and LinkedIn are contending with each other as business platforms. LinkedIn has always been such, but up until recently, has been staid and formal. With the rollout of new Company Pages that bear some resemblance to Facebook Pages, LinkedIn has gained [...]

One of the keys to success in online marketing has to do with penetrating partially-filled or unfilled niches.

Friend and Internet marketing mentor, Dr. Ralph Wilson, a man I refer to as the “godfather of Internet marketing” likens niche marketing to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

Standing at the base of the Wailing Wall [...]

Here are the headlines of four recently published articles:

3 Ways Facebook is Killing Your Website – Jason Baer

Do We Still Need Websites? – Pete Blackshaw

It’s the End of the Web as We Know It – Steve Rubel

The Web is Dead. Long Live the Web. – Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff

Take time to read these, for [...]

It seems everyone is raving over this new merchandising phenomena called group coupon buying from sites like Groupon and its many clones. Groupon, considered by Forbes to be the fastest growing business ever, raised some $170 million in venture capital and is valued as in excess of $1 billion. Not bad for a company only [...]