How Social is Your Business?

 Image via Socialcast While many of your first responses may be something along the lines of "very, we have a Facebook and Twitter page" or "we're on the cutting edge and exploring the potential of Google+" there is yet another side to social networks.  Increasingly people are finding themselves involved in their company's own internal social network.  So, while much of the attention is given to the aforementioned networks, there is a growing number of networks being developed specifically for internal communication, collaboration and transaction. Below are a few examples of some of the hottest business social networks on the market: Yammer -  "The Enterprise Social Network" formed back in 2008 may be the most popular...

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Posted in: Social Tech

Get Ready for HTML5

Photo thanks to Echo Enduring Blog Perhaps the in the most provocative statement of his recent speech, Roger McNamee, a Facebook investor,  asserts that "social is done, it is now just a feature."  To back up, he is certainly not stating that the idea of social media is over, just that if you are going to form a start up, perhaps it may be smarter to invest in an application verses a network.  To be more specific, an application best suited for HTML5, which will change everything.  As he puts it, "In HTML5, an ad is an app, a tweet is an app, everything is an app.  It's a blank sheet of paper, and creativity rules again."   How exciting! A few more great quotes pulled from Business Insider's take on his...

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Posted in: Social Tech

Google Puts Their Hat in the Content Ring

Google certainly has been busy!  Yesterday, thanks to Creativity Online, we learned that Google has put out their second  issue of "Think Quarterly".  Currently a UK edition, it is a fantastic POV on Innovation with contributions from some of today's biggest thinkers and doers.  As they explain in the opening paragraph, there is an incredible amount (exponential if you will) of information out there and in these times of "where do I begin?" Google offers a fantastically designed and curated cross-section of information from their own vast reach.  Check it out he...

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Posted in: Brand/Stories,Culture

Whole Foods and McDonalds; Making Changes for the Kids

Whole Foods also recently announced their "Whole Kids Foundation" which seeks to increase produce consumption in children and reduce childhood obesity.  While they have already given considerable donations to organizations such as Lunchbox.org, they are now working on initiatives that include "campus teaching gardens."  Very cool!  What better way for kids to learn (and love) fresh food than to make it themselves.  Kudos!  In related news, we have heard a lot about Happy Meal bans over the last year and multiple conversations regarding the content of these meals.  In fact, it seems to be more mainstream to expect fast food companies to own up to their part in the problem of childhood obesity and begin to...

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Posted in: Brand,Conscious Biz,Food

A New Economy?

Last week we organized a Simulcast of TED Global taking place in Scotland.  The day was filled with incredible "ideas worth spreading."  One that stood out came from a man named Kevin Slavin, an "algoworld" specialist who has an incredible ability to understand "culture physics" or the correlations and numbers that increasingly determine the information that we consume.  While his presentation is not posted on the site just yet, he did inspire us to do a little bit of research on him and his company Area/Code - which recently joined Zynga New York. We were excited to stumble across their work, not only because it is entirely inspiring, but also because it wonderfully exemplifies "Game-a-fication" or "Game Theory."  Macon...

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Posted in: Brand/Stories,Conscious Biz,Social Tech

Facebook + Skype

Facebook announced today a new partnership with Skype to launch Facebook video calling.  If you remember, Miscrosoft (a Facebook investor) bought Skype for $8.5M back in May, looks like this may be the first of many upcoming strategic partnerships.  There is a lot of flurry going on around today's "awesome event" as Zuckerburg describes it.  Stay tuned for some more big announcements from Facebook - rumors are it may be something for the ever increasing tablet market. Via Linke...

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Posted in: Social Tech

Social Circles

Google has been up to a lot this week.  Most excitedly, they announced the beta launch of Google+ in direct competition to Facebook.  The difference with this social network is the inclusion of "social circles" in which you can create your own, smaller more personal and private communities.  Therefore you can separate what the group of friends you hung out with on Saturday night sees from a client you just didn't feel comfortable "declining" as a friend. Image via The New York Times The service will also offer group chat, similar to GroupMe, making sharing + connecting that much easier between you and your network.  Will Google+ actually make a dent in Facebook?  Or will it fall in the bucket of previous efforts...

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Posted in: Brand/Stories,Social Tech

Zero Moment of Truth

Google has recently released a new eBook, "ZMOT" - the "Zero Moment of Truth" by Jim Lecinski, the Managing Director of US Sales & Service and Chief ZMOT Evangelist.  Adding to the discussion around collaborative commerce and the evolving relationship between consumers and brands, this is a timely resource from one of the largest and arguably most influential entities today.  The download features strategies to win in a shifting marketing landscape and eye opening statistics that may impact your consumer facing as well as listening strategies. Tara DeMarco at BaazarVoice does a nice job of summarizing 5 big ideas from the white paper in a recent post "Winning the Zero Moment of Truth".   In short: 1. Embrace pre-shopping...

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Posted in: Social Tech