Double job switch…what does it mean? @maggiefox @jowyang

I had two emails in my inbox yesterday morning, both from big names in the social business space. Different people, same message — moving on to new job opportunities: Maggie Fox was leaving Social Media Group to join SAP. Jeremiah Owyang was leaving Altimeter Group to start his own firm, Crowd Companies. I sat for …

New dogs and old tricks

Shel Israel recently wrote an elephant-identifying post titled Why SM Consultants are Coming in From the Cold. I call it an elephant-ID post because it focuses on industry mechanics that are all around us, but no one is talking about directly. To summarize what stood out to me in Shel’s post – social media is …

Charlene Li on Open Leadership

Last week I discussed the updates to Groundswell and I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight the continuing work of co-author Charlene Li. Charlene has been a trusted advisor to marketing leaders for over a decade, helping make sense of search and portals in the early days and then building awareness and understanding of social …

When and when not to speak

Black and white: everyone should participate in social media Shades of grey: not everything should be discussed and in many cases, people should consider participation carefully to avoid difficult situations. For example: Doctors blogging about their patients Teachers blogging about their students CSRs tweeting from personal accounts that their customers are stupid There's nothing new …

People-Powered Louisville

For more Louisville pictures click here It's Derby Day tomorrow, which reminds me of the times I've inhabited the infield on the first Saturday in May, along with all of the wonderful people one meets there.  Things have changed a lot since I was first there 20 years ago and with lots of interesting things …

Personal branding as asset allocation

We’ve all been impacted by the global financial crisis in some shape or form.  As we uncover the reasons behind the current chaos (this is the one of the best related posts I’ve read), one theme that keeps repeating is investment in risky vehicles.  Many seemed solid at the time, based on constructs like the …

Ego Trap: Social Media Ranking Tools

It seems like a new ego trap gets sprung every month.  This time, it's social media ranking tools. What's an ego trap? In a nutshell, social technologies use game mechanics to get users hooked on participation.  People often get addicted to ego-stroking system feedback, until they can temper their usage (addiction?) in terms of utility vs. serendipity.  Self-promotion …

influence influenza

After the discussion last week here regarding influence, I asked my colleague Kate Niederhoffer for a more detailed opinion on the topic.  So she's cross-posting here and on her blog.  I'm turning off comments and trackbacks here so the conversation can happen at the source – click here to visit the original post. Whether Influencer …

Ego Trap: Influencer Lists

I’ve been thinking about how ego traps operate in social media – which could also be called hero marketing (credit Seth Godin for suggesting the term).  Social media focuses on individuals.  Self-promotion lies at the root of ego traps, usually inclusive of helping and promoting others. I don’t think ego traps are inherently "bad."  However, …