I’m not an attorney.  I tried reading the Federal Trade Commission’s “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”  But I honestly couldn’t get past page one.  Page 1 is not even the conclusion of the table of contents.   (FTC Guide)

What I was able to glean from the document, and this is not a legal interpretation, is that you shouldn’t lie about a product just ’cause you are getting paid to do so.  I think that about wraps up the complicated wranglings of the doc.

For those of you that read that last statement and thought to yourself, “what does that mean…exactly,” the remainder of the post is for you. Read more…

For years, those in the know have been pointing to the end of email.  Social Media, they say, is moving the archaic technology aside for what is surely to be the new communication tool of choice.  But email continues to unceremoniously chug along as one of the most effective mediums available to marketers.

Now comes the call of Social Media as the new SEO.  And while I am hesitant to accept the notion, or think anyone is actually suggesting that SEO “goes away,” there is something more to this than simply rhetoric. Read more…

Occasionally, it is interesting to pick up a random business / marketing magazine from at minimum one market cycle ago (generally 3 years plus) and skim through the pages to see if there are any predictions that seem to have hit their mark.  And to be sure, everyone has an opinion about a particular company (Apple is an easy choice), technology platform (cloud computing) or person (90% of the CEOs in this magazine are gone).

The magazine that was used for this experiment is the March 2004 issue of Fast Company. The cover story is, “What we learned in the new economy.”  And to be sure, EVERYTHING referenced in this post comes from that edition.  Except for the interpretation. Read more…

I’ve had Google buzz not-so-conveniently nestled in my Gmail account for almost 24 hours now.  Most of what I’m seeing from “followers” is something like, “just thought I’d put something here to see what happened.”  From my perspective, nothing.  But because it’s Google, surely they have something more to offer than a “me-too” service that copies Twitter. Read more…

Twitter doesn’t want you to follow everyone, no matter how important the service is to the betterment of human kind.  And it has nothing to do with up-time.  They are protecting you from the bad people.

According to “Ginger,” (the person the post is credited to) on Twitter’s forum relating to what they term as best practices, you have to adhere to basic rules of decency…I mean guidelines.  Basically, they don’t want you to become annoying to legitimate users of the system and run everyone off, lest Google be serious about buying them (was that out loud)?   Read more…

Presented by: Herb Sih

I recently had the privilege to be a VC panelist at the Executive MBA Program at a very fine, local university. Besides being quite impressed with the very high quality of the students (maybe the down economy has forced only the most serious and committed students to enroll), there were a few reminders to me of some of the “unwritten” rules of a venture capital pitch.

While I confess that my experience is primarily through the lens of an entrepreneur’s eyes, given that I have some background (past and current) in the investment community, maybe I can talk “entrepreneur-speak” and bridge this knowledge gap! And while much of this is simple, common sense knowledge (and divulging these “secrets” won’t get me blacklisted with the VC community and force me to go into hiding like Salman Rushdie), some of these are easily forgotten or not fully respected. Read more…

Presented by: Jene’ Popper-Hong

While all entrepreneurs share the passion necessary to build a business, few share the knowledge or the ability to handle the transition during the exit.  And while your business might seem attractive from a top-line revenue number, there are many details that need to be addressed to ensure your company is legally and financially structured to enter into negotiations.

Jene’ Popper-Hong is a Principle at Business Transition Specialist, the only full-lifecycle merger & acquisition firm in the region helping buy, grow and sell businesses.  Below are the top 10 questions (and answers) she gets when working with clients. Read more…