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On SAP Wins AMI Partners 2010 Award for Best-in-Class Social Media Marketing on MyVenturePad

Thanks to SocialMediaToday and the whole MyVenturepad team for assembling a great path for us toward the recognition!  The attention for a great strategy - and execution - has truly been overwhelming.  Thanks for a great year of firsts: first virtual summit, first excellence award by a research firm, first blogger board / advisory board, and first class community of content for small and mid-sized businesses looking to grow.

On

Steve, very compelling research and conclusions - Do you find many engineers/developers in your analysis?  I was wondering how you would classify engineers and developers in tech firms - are there many who are contingent but contribute to the intellectual property and potential patent-worthy material for example, in the software business?  How do firms justify this - knowing that the inventors - sometimes contingent engineers - may not get their share of ownership? 

On Create Your Own Social Network for Anything! ‘She Blogs She Blogs’ Series Featuring: Anne Driscoll, Ning’s VP Business Operations

Hi Peter, Thanks for reading.  There are networks for those in the Emergency Medical Services Industry, for example, JEMS.  There's Mom Logic, for topics of interest to Moms, I've also read about numerous education and non-profit examples.  There is a brand building scenario for LinkinPark, the band, and there is a great yoga business example in Yogapad. 

On Information Velocity and Economic Recovery

Steve, thanks for the great post and for taking us all back to 2008, and the business uncertainty that defined it!  I'm with (full disclosure) MyVenturepad's sponsor, SAP, and we are seeing that information dashboards and analytics are providing transparency to lines of business responsibles who are closest to these issues which can turn the tide.  Then they can work with management to react swiftly and realize the increased information and business velocity that you've recognized.

On Using Facebook to Grow Your Business

Clara, thank you for being such an enjoyable panelist to listen to.    I think it proves that Facebook brings out the entrepreneur in all of us.  Having these tools available shifts the control to businesses to do their own market research, test and learn, and drive demand for their products, services and tools in a very innovative ways.  We look forward to seeing your new business evolve as you move to the next chapter! 

On She Blogs She Blogs: Growing Small and Midsized Businesses... A Series

Yes, Peter, it is!  In 2005 MaryLou Jepsen and Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte launched the nonprofit, open-source One Laptop Per Child program. Negroponte initially ran the project, Jepsen was the lead innovator and architect who designed the machine.  Thanks for reading.

On Profitability of Small Businesses Rise

Hi Jess, thanks for the post and very useful study, it seems that this year, 2010, will be the year of extracting more productivity out of each employee, each resource, each minute.  However I would hope that 'doing the right thing' also includes more than just layoffs, but rather, better deployment of tools and tactics, such as leveraging investments in technology already on the shelf, or empowering employees with better visibility into company operations for insight into how they may contribute more effectively.

On How reputation measurement will transform professional services

Ross, Really enjoyed this post, and would have enjoyed the conference.  In the past, I'd been in IT Strategy with a major international law firm, and I couldn't agree more.  Here's an example: a lawyer friend at another firm has been told to bring in her partners to meet clients with whom she's initiated discussions.  At the end of the day, consistently the potential clients will say: 'why did you stick me with those partners, I really like your associate's approach and want to work with your firm, provided I get to work with her!'  I can imagine it is similar in consulting firms and it is becoming necessary to offer more transparency here as customers are making these choices more visible in peer groups and ever more visible in social media peer groups.

On Lessons From the Edge (or Top of the Key)

Thanks, Elizabeth - appreciate the read and comment!

On A decision-centric organization

James, this is a really valuable piece.  I worked in Europe for many years and I'd noticed that at least in German-speaking countries they "take" a decision rather than "make" a decision.  This always framed very well what a commitment it is to do so; putting a firm stake in the ground and 'taking' decisions is somehow more proactive.

On Find Your Customer in Asia’s Social Set: How Can You Get the Buzz for your Brand in Asia?

Thanks, to you both, for reading.  Stay tuned for how this will impact SMEs in a post to come.

On The Big RT - How I Benefited More On Twitter By Saying Nothing

Brent, I also enjoyed your post.  And thanks for contributing to MyVenturepad.   We're really working to foster engagement and posts such as yours have provided some terrific examples of this -  and encourage others to innovate the social web further.