Yes, Google+ is just two months old, and yes, they’ve had a great uptake in numbers using the service (currently 25 million and counting). But there’s a growing amount of talk about how it’s not majorly different from what’s currently out there. Additionally, the majority of users fall within limited categories – early adopters, tech geeks, social media “power users” and marketers/agencies trying to decide on its potential business value. For Joe Public, though, Google+ remains an anomaly, and one…

This is a guest post by Niall Harbison. The media landscape is changing right in front of our eyes – we have moved from a world where large organizations controlled the media we consumed to a more democratic time where everybody has a voice. Because of the huge shifts in technology, anybody can start their own media empire with a small amount of money, lots of drive and a creative mind. Two of the biggest examples are Techcrunch and Mashable…

Klout sucks. Not because of what they’re trying to do, in measuring your online influence (although I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a fan of that approach for a number of reasons). Nor do they suck because they’ve engendered a mindset among people to try and grab Klout Perks, based on that perception of influence. Heck, you’ll always have folks that do nothing but want everything for free, so may as well have somewhere for them to spend…

There’s a mindset among many business owners that they need to be on social media. Specifically, they need to be on Facebook; or Twitter; or LinkedIn; or have a blog; or look ahead to business options on Google Plus. This is usually fostered by fly-by-night consultants and agencies who tap into the fear factor so many businesses have about social media, and use blinding statistics and numbers about these platforms, and why a business needs to be on them. You…

This is a guest post by Howie Goldfarb. But he also invited me to guest post for which I am flattered and honored. Not sure which I feel more honored and flattered about. Obviously Danny doesn’t care if you like him because he invited me to write this post! So, this is for you: Do not follow, read, attend webinars, or conferences by ‘A-Listers’ if you want to learn how to market products, services, or brands.  There – I said…

So, Morton’s Steakhouse is making waves online at the minute, due to them delivering a steak to HARO founder and social media guy Peter Shankman. If you’ve not heard it, the story in a nutshell is this – Peter faces a long flight home and is hungry, so tweets to Morton’s that he’d love a steak delivered and waiting for him at Newark Airport. Lo and behold, when he arrives and goes to his car, the steak and a tuxedo-wearing…

No, this isn’t an ego post. It’s not driven by, “Oh, I really need to impress that Scottish/Canadian/Brit (what the heck is he??) Danny Brown guy.” Screw that – ego is for chumps (hat tip Shannon Boudjema for the phrase). But you seriously don’t need to impress me. I’m not your life mate. I’m not your boss. I’m not your editor. I’m not your parents. I’m not your font of all wisdom. But then, you don’t need to impress these people either (more…

“Even a little dog can piss on a big building.” – Jim Hightower. As people, we’re fixated on size. We want bigger houses; bigger cars; bigger offices; bigger paychecks. If our neighbour gets a pool, ours has to be bigger. It’s one of the fallacies of being human; big means successful. The same goes for business. We see corporations wanting bigger land; bigger deals; bigger profits; bigger golden handshakes when the time comes for executives to move on. In business,…

This is a guest post by Bill Dorman. Okay, I was going to jokingly say Michelangelo must have had me in mind when he sculpted this; but then that might imply I’m old and my FedEx package could have been sent via regular mail instead of shipped. Now we wouldn’t want that as a persona, would we? Throughout your life, somebody somewhere is always looking up to you; and sometimes it can create lofty expectations. Do you want to be there?…

When daily deal sites like Living Social and Groupon came to the market, many observers looked at it as another nail in the coffin for offline retailing. By bringing huge discounts to consumers via their local business partners, Groupon and others like them would show business a new way to make more money, while bringing more customers to them. Except it’s not quite worked out that way yet. Short Term Gain, Long Tail Miss The problem with daily deals sites…