Networking is the epicenter for new contacts, sales leads, friendships and new clients. Social media has been a magnificent platform for networking and sites such as Linkedin – have created a community – that has been a well respected platform for businesses and professionals. Twitter has now also become a great place to connect for all genres of interest both business and personal and lets not forget Facebook! Read the rest of this entry »

Remember those delicious Girl Guide Cookies? Or the Avon and Mary Kay representatives that used to come door to door – with their catalogs back in the day. They would have a bag of samples of products for you to try, you could leaf through their catalogs make your selections and then your representative would come back to your home and hand deliver your order. None of those things have disappeared – but like everything the methods for which some of those salespeople are now not only finding new customers, but communicating and engaging with their current customers is via social media online. Read the rest of this entry »

In light of the world cup soccer FIFA – taking place as I write this in South Africa – I thought it might be fun to write about sports and social media. As many sports fans know ,there are many sports that have embraced social media from NBA basketball ( which is in the midst of a nail biting finals), hockey congrats to the Chicago Black Hawks who won the Stanley Cup after a record draught of 49 years! WOW that is worth the celebration that took place on the streets of Chicago! Yes my beloved tennis just finished the French Open and all of these sports have embraced social media. Read the rest of this entry »

That tag Ideas Worth Spreading is attached to TED Talks. It has been a while since I have posted one of their fabulous lectures. I find them to be innovative, creative, shocking, funny, inspiring and a place where the unimaginable ideas make really great sense. I try to go the site regularly pick a random topic – listen and learn! You can find them at http://www.ted.com. I recommend you make the visit if you have not. You are sure to find some of the people you know, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and those you may not know such as Joanna Blakeley.

As we all know I not only began my career in fashion – but to this day love it as much as my days as a 3 year old – sporting my mothers jewelery, bags and shoes. I just listened to a lecture by Joanna Blakeley that I am going to post – that uses the free culture of fashion and copying to show how many businesses – including the business I work in now – that the freedom leveraged from fashion from not having legal right to copy rights and trademarks – can be a very lucrative business for all. Both designer and mass market. The ideas she SHARES and the analogies she uses from one of my most favorite things – give great pause for thought – for many industries. By the way “we all need to cover our naked bodies as she says” and as you will see in the presentation the ROI is nothing to sneeze at!

Open source for the digital world has certainly taken on this idea of not only SHARING ideas but copying those that were great and putting a new twist on them……how are you free in your industry to SHARE your ideas? IF not – maybe it is time to look at this wonderful video that talks about how creative industries can learn from fashion’s free culture.

Enjoy.

Best Nicole

I was in a meeting a few weeks ago and one of the executives in the meeting mentioned -that many of her clients are not using social media. Big corporate companies in some cases are not – but IF you think for a second that it is not being used by every industry you can think of – think again! Almost everyone I know and that YOU know has a Facebook profile or knows someone who does. From your local grocery store, to your local news station, to the boutique who sells your favorite shoes all have a presence on Facebook! Read the rest of this entry »

I read a great article today that I am going to SHARE with you at the end of this post. It talks about brand promise vs brand experience. Social media as we all know – has now broadened the net for reach and allows not just a brand, but anyone to SHARE anything their hearts desire and have it spread like wildfire by leveraging social media tools. Many businesses are finally waking up to the power of these tools and better yet -  it is the customer that is now driving much of the power – by being able to clearly articulate and SHARE with those that will listen, to their wants, needs and benefits of doing business with them. In return the business in question must be able to not only listen – but stand tall on what their brand promise, product, service and value is and stay true to their word. Read the rest of this entry »

Before there was social networking there was real-world networking. And you know what? It came with drinks and hors d’oeuvres, so it wasn’t all that bad.”

–Rich Brooks, president of Flyte New Media