Twitter

Business has been built on the foundation of selling stuff. Hopefully, lots of stuff – products, ideas, services – to lots of folks.

The latest tool new-marketing experts are promoting to management is social media. You know, putting your products, your ideas in front of the masses to buy.

Most social media efforts today – Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube video program – are implemented, tested and measured to push what your stuff to retail (brick and mortar or ecommerce) to keep the cash register ringing. If the bottomline is black, the people who recommended and ran the program say, "See, it works!" If the bottomline bleeds red, another social media team is brought in.

Social media, the internet, smartphones, ecommerce, mobile to in-store signage and friends digital coupons put you in front of the customer. If it's a bad product, bad process or the business-as-usual model hasn't changed to align with today's new environment; social media people and tools won't produce the results you want and need…a sustainable business.

Digital marketing and social media programs that are implemented on top of the same old business model to move the products/ideas are too obvious, too easy to see through. They’re about as transparent as Morgan Spurlock's recent documentary, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

The business of yesterday was tough. The business of tomorrow is even tougher; and only a few will be willing to be sit there and be told what they want and must buy through psychological manipulation and repetition. Read more

"I'm surprised you aren't mad at me... I thought you might hold it against me for killing 3 of your guys." – John Smith., Last Man Standing, New Line Cinema (1996)

There's been a number of girl books published recently that put down the "pre-adulthood" male (they call them guys).

With trepidation, we enter into this discussion because one of the first things a married guy learns is he's wrong…all the time! Of course, women have better role models. In the U.S., there's Oprah, Rachel Rae, Ellen DeGeneres, Julie Roberts, Katie Couric. Guys have Jerry Springer, Charlie Sheen, Will Farrell, Donald Trump, (add your favorites).

Women rush to maturity, adulthood. Guys fight it as long as possible…sometimes into their 50s, 60s and beyond. Females say this is because men in their 20s are living a new kind of extended adolescence.Read more

'Tis the Season– Either time passes too quickly or the year is getting shorter. Seems like Black Friday, Cyber Monday 2010 were just here and BAM!!! they're back. True Halloween is barely passed but retailers have missed you crowding the malls, beating each other up for those marvelous Christmas gifts. This year, you're ready because all your mobile device batteries are fully charged and you know how to use these shopping tools.

It's hard to believe but the most dreaded period of the year is almost here…Black Friday, Cyber Monday.

If you thought last year was "interesting," this year is lining up to be a terror. Yes, folks have lost jobs…yes homes are underwater…yes things are tight.

Financial institution greed, political hypocrisy only makes the human spirit more resilient. Yes **** it you're still standing!

People are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Manufacturers, online/storefront retailers are determined to move the needle even if global governments can't/won't! It used to be simple ... Retailers – management, employees – would have an uneasy Thanksgiving meal and rush to the store to get the merchandise ready for the mobs.

Women would hit the stores fighting over half a bra. Men would hit the stores to struggle under the weight of a new huge TV set. Manufacturers would be readying next year's plans, budgets, preparing for good/bad news on end-of-year sales.Read more

"Everyone" is embracing social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc. It's a way for organizations to bring their staffs, consultants, customers closer together.

Social media is the more efficient, more effective way for companies and consumers to identify each other's wants, needs, goals. It was one of the underlying themes of Dreamforce – The Cloud Computing Event of the Year, sponsored by Salesforce.com.

Internal and external social media has become such a big business (check all of the cloud company stocks) that the global management consulting firm, Accenture, announced they were planting a social media lab in Silicon Valley to help clients realize all of the benefits of the all-inclusive solution.

It's the next phase of industry growth beyond Geoffrey Moore's digital chasm (bringing advanced technology beyond the early adopters to mainstream – volume – profits) that business, industry and communications are rushing to capitalize on … or be left in the dust.

Marc Benioff, Salesforce's CEO, had the solution for organizations (customers) – add customers to Chatter, use HTML5 for mobile CRM apps, provide the means for customers to store sensitive data away from prying eyes and provide opportunities for companies/customers to forever become joined at the waist and live happily ever after. Benioff told the captive audience that the world has moved beyond Moore's Chasm and that businesses are now faced with a huge and dangerous challenge – the Social Chasm.

Make the transition now and join up with their digitally adept customers or be stranded on "the other side."Read more

After the first social media frenzy you'd think/hope people learned so things won't go wrong this time around. If understanding is overpowered by greed, things won't go wrong…they'll go seriously awry. Screenshot – "The Hangover Part II," Warner Bros (2011)

A friend recently gave us a flyover of the island he owns out in the middle of the ?????

Another's son took us on a tour of his farm complete with cows, chickens, pigs, tractors and a horse out in the middle of ????

It was fast, simple, easy…they just went to SecondLife, Farmville respectively and showed us around.

You may think it's the virtual world, but they paid real money for their property and improvements.

The new round of online, social media fervor/fear is as interesting as the stuff we saw in the 1995-2000 dot-com bubble.

Could it happen again?Read more

By Jeff Zbar
www.homeofficehighway.com

This dispatch is from BestStuff technology and home office contributor Jeff Zbar, who's on a three-week family road trip through the American West. Whether you're a road warrior, a home-based business owner, a teleworker, or just a family in search of the freedom of the road, enjoy Jeff's commentary. Want to learn more? Hit www.chiefhomeofficer.com.

My wife is no technophile. When her netbook wigs out, drops its wifi connection or otherwise gets kinda jiggy, she loses it and shuts the cover. "I hate technology," she'll grumble.

She's had a Facebook going on two years now. But she never uses it. Twitter? Isn't that a nervous response to an unsettling situation – like using technology?

You could say that, aside from insects, prison movies and my immature annoyances, she hates nothing more than technology.

Call her Robbie, Queen of the Luddites.

I think she's slowing realizing, though, that she cannot live — or at least work — in the 21st Century without some tech in her life.

As a nurse practitioner with a budding side business in patient tutorials, she should receive and reply to emails throughout the day. Yet, she could go days without checking email, leading her clients to re-send – and then call – wondering if she received their work assignments.Read more

A parent's job is never finished & especially when it comes to keeping up with the technology that children so easily seem to understand. If you're a parent today, chances are, you're well aware that your job has grown far beyond making sure homework is completed and everyone gets to school on time. Today's parents have Facebook, Twitter and a whole new world of social tools to consider when it comes to raising their children and even getting some well-deserved socializing in for themselves, and leading the way in most digital activities are iPhone owning parents, or "iParents" as we affectionately call them. In an effort to help parents understand what other parents are doing (and not doing) in the social space, consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo commissioned a Gadgetology study to look at the changing role of parents in this new age of technology.

iPhone Parents Collect More Facebook Friends
Have you ever wondered if a "magical device" like an iPhone has the power to make a parent more popular on Facebook? Apparently, it can't hurt. When compared with the general parent population, iPhone owning parents are more likely to be social on Facebook than the average parent. Retrevo found that 13% of iPhone owning parents had more than 500 Facebook friends as opposed to only 8% of all parents who had more than 500 Facebook friends.Read more

If you think Anthony Weiner's problems are just isolated online difficulties that don't happen to regular folks, you should think again. In a recent Retrevo Gadgetology study that looked at how people use the gadgets in their lives, over half the respondents under 25 years old said they regret posting something online. When we looked back at a similar Gadgetology study from a year ago it doesn't look like online users have learned much, as the number of those with "poster's remorse" has actually revealed a subtle increase.

Damage Ex Post Facto
While it is possible for some people to remove or repair problematic postings, for many others, damage control can be more challenging, if not impossible. Over 25% of those who regretted their post say it ruined their marriage or relationship or caused problems at home or work.Read more