2009 January

Anyone who's browsed this blog understands my passion for the consumer/customer. I assert that they MAKE your business. Yes, that may sound obvious--the premise is commerce, after all. But what I mean is, consumer insight is the holy grail business strategists, product developers, marketers, and sales forces should forsake most other tools for.  Insight can help a business: Anticipate: flaws, lack of functionality, holes in offering suites Mitigate: lessen the impact or importance of flaws...

Every day we have opportunities to hear what goes on around us. On the large, that means literally being part of conversations with peers, vendors, employees, and clients (let's omit personal relationships).  We know that communication happens in several forms; oral, written, and gestures like facial expressions and body language.  There's even the "unspoken" variety, in which messages are sent in subtle or veiled ways between two groups or persons sharing a complex relationship (eyebrows, in particular,...

This post is my follow up to "The Internet and News Media: Where Has All This Progress Gotten Us?." The interview below was graciously granted by Mr. Ron Kelley, editor of The DeFuniak Herald. The Herald has been published continuously for the good people of De Funiak Springs and Walton County, Florida since 1881. As part of examining the newspaper industry, journalistic pursuits, and consumer information habits, I think viewing these facets through the lens of a small-town paper is very intriguing....

This is one of those posts that has been noodling around in my, well, noodle for awhile. The idea struck me one day while driving when I passed a sign jabbed crookedly in the ground at a street corner. You know the type, screen printed on a sheet of thick plastic with prongs on one side to hold it securely in the ground? I typically notice these types of signs (I fret about the poor people dodging traffic to install them) but my sense is that they're often used for commodity service providers...

A Blog And A Partner I had the opportunity to partner with Successful Blog author Liz Strauss, and let me say I'm darned lucky. Not only is Liz the fairy godmother of relationships and conversations, but she can identify kernels of ideas and say big things about them.  Things that get her readers thinking.  And you can be sure, they're always listening to Liz. The post I co-authored was published today and is titled "It's so easy to get stuck repeating what we already know." And you guessed...

Content Distribution Machine Part 1 of 2 For the last few years, we've either read or heard information about traditional media and the growth of the Internet as a distribution channel for content (news and other information). The marketplace has created business opportunities for content publishing portals like Junta42 and OneSpot, and given learned people the means to share their viewpoints in myriad of categories (marketing, finance, photography, small business advisories, etc.) via a number...

The month of December has been a whirlwind for me and while I've had some time to read or scan some 2009 prediction posts crafted by others, I haven't had the opportunity (nor inclination, if I'm honest!) to consider creating my own. So this seemed like an appropriate moment to share the links I've gathered and serve as a '2009 Prediction Aggregator' (and in a few cases, 2008 year-in-review) of sorts.  All are tagged "2009Predictions" in Delicious under my username, rast5. Enjoy, and please...