Turns out some of your friends are jerks
There's a paradox in my involvement in social media that people who know me well will understand: Often I don't want to know what most people are thinking. For instance, the absolute nadir of human communication is occurring in the comments sections of YouTube and local news sites. I avoid them as much as possible. I had a moment this weekend with Facebook that showed me a future I find as unpleasant as it is likely. Facebook is essentially becoming the

Does the word "blogger" mean anything anymore?
I was in our External Communications team staff meeting earlier this week listening to a discussion of SAS' Premier Business Leadership Series event in Las Vegas, and the journalists and bloggers who attended. Some of the "journalists" write for print, some online, and some both. Some of the "bloggers" are influential and have large audiences in the markets SAS serves. Our PR team is actively engaged with all of them, helping them with stories, answering inquiries and building relationships. So what's the difference between a blogger and a journalist in this context? Is it just the medium t

Social media trends for 2010, from David Armano
Lots of people make grand (and often unrealistic) predictions about social media and where it's going. David Armano from the Dachis Group has a very practical, believable set of predictions on the Harvard Business blog. Worth reading. He's spot on about social media becoming less "social," and I've been

Social CRM: Connecting your sales force to the social web
Mike Schneider (@schneidermike) Notes from "Social CRM: Connecting Your Sales Force to the Social Web" at the Social Media Business Forum The problem: The sales force is busy, they're under pressure, they've got quotas and are presented with different methods. Social CRM: "The company's response to the customer's control of the conversation." - Paul Greenberg

The future of business on the social web
Panelists (left to right) Laura Fitton (@pistachio), John Andrews (@Katadhin), Lucretia Pruitt (@GeekMommy) and Jason Falls (@JasonFalls) My notes from The Future of Business on the Social Web panel at the Social Media Business Forum Jeff Cohen started the panel with a question: Has social media gone beyond communications? Does it impact everything a business does? Jason: "Social media" is an adjective. There's always something after it. Th