Lyft and Uber disrupted the taxi business by allowing anyone with an iPhone to be a cab driver whenever they had a little extra time. Airbnb disrupted the hotel industry by making spare bedrooms for rent. FancyHands, desk, TaskRabbit, and other personal assistant services let you be a secretary, caterer, or errand runner in your […]
The hidden career of the online marketer Read More »
The other day, a consultant I hired was whining about how I pay him only $260,000 a year. I’m sitting in a Motel6 eating McDonald’s, wearing pants I got for $19 at TJ Maxx, on my old Droid phone. I’m trying to display empathy for his argument that there are so many other programmers who
How I went from Completely Rich to Completely Broke Read More »
We pretend everything’s just fine to our fellow business owners and friends. But the truth is, we all struggle – we’re calm on the surface but paddling like mad below the water. Each week, payroll’s a gamble because you’re not always sure where the funds are coming from to pay your people. And you have
Admit It – You’re Struggling as a Small Business Read More »
Ha! I made you look, didn’t I? The key to a great piece of content is the subject line. Doesn’t matter if it’s email, a Facebook post, an AdWords copy, a blog post, or a postcard delivered by the Post Office. If you don’t catch their attention right off the bat, they’ll never open your
I know your dirty little secret Read More »
I’m at 38,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean on my way to Norway, having just finished “Onward” by Howard Schultz. It’s the story of Starbucks’ turnaround from early 2008 to late 2010—the founding CEO coming back to take the reins and revive what the brand is about. You should read it. FIVEBUCKS That’s what I
Why Starbucks = Community Read More »
Some similarities for sure in any set of companies that skyrockets to a massive user base and corresponding corporate baggage. However, I was part of the Yahoo! Data Team and can tell you that Facebook is FAR more aggressive with data than we ever were. The General Counsel of Yahoo! refused to let us tie
Business Insider says that Facebook is the new Yahoo! …I disagree. Read More »
This is a guest post by Ali Mostofian of Orange Marketing, who kindly wrote this post after talking on Facebook about his personal experiences relating to the original article, Why you should not help friends After I saw the blog post by Dennis Yu “Why you should not help friends”, we started a nice conversation on
Why Orange Marketing CEO Ali Mostofian does not help friends Read More »
We’ve known that calculating reach and frequency metrics for Facebook is a tough engineering challenge, especially to do it in near real-time. While Facebook has been vague as to which metrics are affected and to what extent, our guess is that the calculations of uniques by day and post are the main issue. Interactions, fans,
Facebook Restating Insights Data Read More »
If you’re reading this, you’re a digital guru among your friends– called on for all manner of tech support issues. They expect magic– and for free. So don’t help them if: – You believe that doing so will lead to introductions to some powerful person. This white lie rarely produces anything. – You expect anything
Why you should not help friends Read More »
When I left Yahoo! a few years ago, I prided myself on Starbucks being my office. Meet folks there, have a drink, and use the free wifi. It was in Silicon Valley, where tech folks meet for lots of coffee, though the elites may wish to mention Bucks, Il Fornaio, or other high-end VC hangouts.
Starbucks is not my office Read More »