The following is an excerpt of a story that brings home the power of influence and social networking.  This is an off-line example that took place back in 2004/2005.  The account is written in first person and took place in the Midwestern United States.  It is sort of long and I didn't want to edit it down, as it would lose some of ...

For me especially, the firm Brains on Fire evokes an interesting set of emotions.  The reason is pretty complex.  BOF (Brains on Fire) is a competitor to ComBlu.  They are talented people, so they are a worthy competitor.  One of their WOM team members, Virginia Miracle (Vee Dub) used to be ComBlu's client when she ...

The other day I was talking with somebody who made a really smart comment that led to a fascinating debate.  His point was that brands are terrified to a) embrace customers as part of the innovation process.  You know, those best customers who really get it (aka Customer Advocates) and b) fire those toxic customers who do nothing ...

Social Networking Goes Mobile with GotZapp - Social Computing Magazine; May 4, 2007 ''Now anyone with a profile on MySpace or Facebook can easily copy that profile directly into a GotZapp account,'' said Tim Loudermilk, company founder and chief software architect on the launch of GotZapp, a new mobile social networking platform….''Users can use ...

Well, I have returned from the WOMMA conference and am back in the routine.  For those of you who are not familiar with WOMMA, it stands for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (www.womma.org).  The FTC in 2006 sanctioned WOMMA's code of word of mouth ethics (the rules and toolboxes) as 'safe harbor'.  So if you are ...

I have had a new hobby to occupy my time during those late night periods of time where your eyes pop open precisely at 2:59am each night for a couple of nights in a row.  C'mon, you have to admit that this has happened to you at least once.  Maybe like me, you ask yourself the question, ''Is it my mind working on something that is ...