Ignored in high school, the geek princes of social media now thrive on attention from eager fanboys (and calculating flacks). Relentless Fast Company egoblogger Robert Scoble was their king. Until he got dethroned. Scoble — chubby, bespectacled, and awkward, the unlikeliest of all video person...

(Photograph by Martin Schoeller) When it comes to brand endorsements, celebrity endorsements can be one of the most complex. Not only can it be hard for the brand to overcome what Rohit Bhargava calls the “paid to play� perception, but there is always a risk that a celebrities actions might stra...

There are actually many that work in concert, but two stand out. According to Matt Pace at Compete.com, they are the company's dedication to customer service and its masterful use of consumers’ browsing and purchase data to tailor the site for each visitor. [hat tip to Jeffrey Eisenberg] In fact, ...

[ free hugs campaign, started by Juan Mann, music by Sick Puppies - 3:39 ] Employees and customers are every business first community, along with the whole supply chain partners and providers, physical neighbors and local authorities. Today, businesses have more reasons to embrace their communities ...

Edelman VP Steve Rubel wrote a post yesterday where he discussed why text is still the "king" of the Web. The article is worth reading because the points Rubel makes are solid. He says text is scannable, you can SEO the heck out of text, easier for workers to slack off reading text vs. video, easier...

Caring for your customers can be a serious competitive advantage. But you cannot claim you put your customers first until you actually do that. The money quote does not get that way without you doing a bit of "show me the money" work. When I talk to business owners about customer conversations, the ...

Because FCC rules stipulate you cannot use “Jesus Christ� as an exclamation unless the deity himself is present. This and other fascinating insight into Seth MacFarlane, his Family Guy empire, his creative relationship with Fox, his Google deal and perhaps most importantly, what the future of di...

When I write about customer conversations I hold the memory not just of my experiences, but those of the customer service professionals I've had the privilege of working with and meeting during my career. It's only fair to make the conversation balanced from the start. This is very personal. In Augu...

According to the entry on wikipedia, trust is a relationship of reliance. It does not need to involve belief in the good character, vices, or morals of the other party. And it does not need to include an action that you and the other party are mutually engaged in. In fact, trust is a prediction of r...

Last night after weeks of 'quiet hype' on the YouTube blog and elsewhere, Google launched YouTube Live. There are already some lessons to be learned, as the reviews (mostly bad), continue to roll-in. Prior to the launch, there had been numerous articles on how people were adopting Hulu in large numb...