This is a guest post by Neicole Crepeau. Last week I inadvertently stepped into a hornet’s nest on my blog. I publicized some SEO practices that I had been unaware of, including the fact that they may be taking place on a major blogger’s site (unknown to him, I assumed). The response from that blogger seemed to me out of all proportion. He threatened me with a lawsuit, resulting in my taking down the original post. His response to this…

News came out this week that Ford are recalling more than 1 million F-series trucks, due to a defect in the straps that secure the truck’s fuel tanks to the vehicle. The defect could see the straps corrode, causing the tanks to fail. So far, there have been 8 incidents, three of which included a fire, and one injury. The news came to the fore after an investigation by the U.S. auto safety regulator, and affects older versions of the…

This is a guest post by Marjorie Clayman. It’s been a weird year. Grand in many ways. Here’s an example. So, Mr. Brown here, he asked me to guest post on this site you’re looking at, and I thought, “Wow, what an honor!!” Shortly thereafter, I was playing on Google+ and I got invited to a hang-out with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. I hadn’t even circled them! How did they know where I was?? Anyway, I agreed to hang…

Social media is many things to many people. For some, it’s a core part of their overall business and marketing strategy. For others, it’s a key player in driving traffic to their blog. For others, it’s a new toy they’re just beginning to play with. And for some, it’s about as interesting as pond moss. So, lots of uses and definitions, depending on who you speak to. Yet there is one area where all the definitions can come together and…

This is a guest post by Olivier Blanchard. Earlier this year, Danny wrote a post about social media diversity, that received a fair bit of conversation both on his blog, and away from it. Maybe diversity has nothing to do with it, though. Maybe the answer is far simpler than that. From where I stand, it says something about 30-40 year old white dudes that so many of them feel compelled to spend all day talking about social media and…

Companies love to share their successes with social media. How it’s allowing them to “engage with fans and customers”, and how they’re “being part of the conversation”. Like it’s something new and wild and golly gee, aren’t we great? Well, yes, it’s great that you’re doing something you should have been doing all along – talking with customers, and not just because of social media – and it’s great that you’re now part of the conversations around your brand. But…

This is a guest post from Lisa Petrilli. I just spent two full days in a phenomenal leadership simulation program entitled, “Magnetic Leadership” that was conceived, created and offered by Profitability Business Simulations. I had the privilege of playing the role of the customer throughout the simulation, and then coaching the teams and their leaders after each simulation round was completed. During each round, one person on each team was appointed “CEO” and was responsible for determining the overall direction…

This is a guest post by Stuart Mills. “Social media is a great way to tell the world what you’re thinking before you’ve had a chance to think about it.” – Chris Pirillo Have you ever heard of that old saying, “You can take the ‘x’ out of the ‘y’, but you can’t take the ‘y’ out of the ‘x’”? It implies to social media a lot. How many people do you know have Facebook? Or Twitter? Or even that…

2010 was an interesting time in the evolution of social media. It was the year that many people got used to the real-time statusphere. It was the year that location-based social software really started to socially map out the “real world” and encourage face-to-face connections. Next generation social collaboration tools like Quora made a splash. There was a ton of positive hype and emotion about social media. Some of it was justified. A lot of it was overblown. 2011 is the…

Welcome to a new episode of Sunday Brunch (with special guest Phantom the cat), where we talk about your questions on social media, marketing, business tips, entrepreneurship and more. Today’s question is from Dorina Ene, Media Planner at Springer and Jacoby Romania, a media and advertising agency. Dorina asks: “Why is social media so important to brands? Do you think that only using social media can raise awareness?” Thanks for the question, Dorina, and I hope the video helps. If…