by Sarah Miller Caldicott    In the last 6 weeks, management upheavals have rained down on corporate America.  Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO in mid-August.   Yahoo’s board of so-called ”doofuses” ousted CEO Carol Bartz via a telephone call.  In yet another board crisis at HP,CEO short-timer Leo Apotheker was swept out and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman was swept in. Financial services companies were not immune.  UBS chief executive …Read More

by Drew McLellan     Klout is a social media tool that measures your online influence by evaluating your activity on a variety of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, and others.  It doesn’t just take into account your actions but also how your fans/followers/friends react to what you share. According to Klout’s website:  “The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action.  Every …Read More

by guest contributor Paul Keiser     Computing breakthroughs deliver new affordable ways to infer what to send every website visitor. Most online companies typically spend a small fortune to drive visitors to their websites.  Most of that money is wasted.  With paltry sales conversion rates of 2% to 4%, the majority of website visitors simply leave without buying.  These same companies typically do an inadequate job identifying and remarketing to non-buyers. …Read More

by Carol Phillips          The ultimate goal of any brand effort is differentiation.  Setting your product apart from its competitors is an essential first step toward creating preference and loyalty.  According to research firm, Millward Brown, ”brands that are perceived as being different have a much higher potential for growth than do other brands.”  Consequently, identifying and communicating meaningful points of difference has become the focus of much strategic branding …Read More

by Stephen Denny     There’s a time when we all push back from the table and say, in so many words, ”I think that’s about it…” and the assumption rebounds around the room that there’s ”someone” who is going to button up the last details.  If you work in the sorts of companies I’ve worked in for 20- years – and have bumped into over the past several as a …Read More

by Matt Gill     I’m not getting anything out of it, so I’m taking my ball and going home. Just because you go to a couple of cocktail parties and don’t get a new client or a new job, it doesn’t mean networking is useless.  Notice the word hidden within ”networking” is ”work.”  Ya, that’s not an accident. Done right,it’s a ton of work. It takes planning, practice, refinement, and perseverance. …Read More

by Patricia Martin     ? I have an emotional attachment to my wallet. It’s worn and a little tattered, but I refuse to replace it.  If Google has its way, I may no longer need it. A couple of months ago, Google rolled out Google Wallet, giving us a glimpse into the future of payment transactions.  The new service uses NFC (Near Field Communication) to allow consumers to swipe their phones …Read More

by Richard Sellers     There are 7 questions that you need to answer positively before deciding whether or not to take a new job offer, transfer or even promotion. 1.    Do you look forward to taking the job?        This is the gut check. If it feels wrong, stop right here and run from the offer.  Friends have talked themselves into taking a job that they intuitively knew they shouldn’t, …Read More

by Dorothy Crenshaw    PR gaffes are generally easy to recognize. The digital backlash, a mishandled crisis, or a bungled blogger event offers instant learnings.  Mistakes are often debated, but they’re pretty clear in hindsight.  A less obvious miss is the public relations “opportunity cost.”  That’s the failure to take advantage of the chance to build in an easy marketing PR component or extend a program by generating earned media visibility. …Read More

by Veronica Fielding     It’s back to school time, which means it’s a new year.  I’m a big advocate of continuing education and personal/professional growth–for me, January 1 isn’t so much a time of starting over as September is.  But this summer went so fast, I find myself just now thinking about my ”new year’s resolutions.”  Here’s how I’m going to reinvest in my personal brand on the business side of …Read More