Let’s do a comparison: Yahoo IPO’d back in April 12, 1996, the stock opened at $24 hit a high of $43 and closed at $33. Yahoo had a market cap of $200 billion. Jerry Yang and David Filo have fairly good reputations, not a lot of negative overtones, yet some critical rumblings of the IPO and company evaluation. The difference between Yahoo and Facebook is the beginning. Yahoo paved the path for did the dirty work of building credibility of the internet and digital, did much to open the doorway for internet media companies to IPO. Facebook saw the past and understood it future.

Envision this, the Facebook IPO will be the end of the end of all IPO’s for social networks or this could be beginning for next generation of social networks expectations of IPO.

BTW Facebook today decided to increase share price range to $34 to $38 making the value of Facebook roughly $160 billion.

As we become more intoxicated by the daily hype machine over the IPO of Facebook, we look at some sobering polls. It seems 57% of people using Facebook don’t trust Facebook. Why should investors care? Looking at the potential value of $160 billion with roughly a 1 billion users, Facebook anticipates gaining in ad revenue. If FB users don’t trust the ads they won’t participate, leaving advertisers with little return on investment. But where else can FB gain in revenue maybe it’s in ap sharing revenue? Perhaps mobile ad but I seriously doubt it. BUT WAIT maybe it’s in the purchase of other media properties? And maybe the first purchase will be a traditional media company or retailer.

The simple reasons why people use Facebook: to connect to each other, as a stage, to show popularity, and to broadcast. Some recent evidence shows they are not clicking on ads, but are willing to show their “love” of a brand.

Wishful thinking on the IPO that it is a reasonable not absurd IPO, Facebook becomes the biggest market place in the world which will help small business owners, jobs will be created for everyone not just the  hoodie generation, and Mark will gain some maturity. I may not believe in Mark but I will put my money on Sheryl Sandberg.

But if history continues to repeat itself and it will, we will see another Yahoo and it won’t be in my lifetime that I see Facebook reach the evaluation.

What I had hoped to see was fresh thinking to problem solving, an understanding of the consumer or customer’s pain points and empirical evidence to support business direction. What I did find was some very clever kids with great showmanship abilities in promoting. Ninety percent of the New York Tech Day was made up of aps that a smart investment group may see an opportunity to compile into businesses that may actually have long term sustainability and a viable revenue stream. But this would take a lot energy on part of an investment group to see the wisdom in doing this. I’m left thinking, in a year from now how many of these young start-up businesses represented in NY Tech Day will around next year. I estimate that 1-10 may be around – of course that’s me being optimistic.

What was awesome at NY Tech Day. Let’s first take a look at Kate Hough‘s honest review of the reality of New York Tech Day, you’ll get a sense of what it was like, and I am in agreement with almost everything she wrote.

Though there were some gems that had very little to do with tech and lot to with a clear pain point being solved and path to revenue. These businesses I think will do well:

• New York Mouth – I am a food nob this delicious new start-up is one that I can’t live without.
• ZocDoc - Wow! what a time saver though it doesn’t tell you if the doctor is taking on new patients or let you choose by gender.
• Little Borrowed Dress - Kate and I disagree on this one but I find bridesmaid dresses a burden to buy [$500+ on up) and there's no value after you wore it - this business solves this problem nicely!

I'm giving an honorable mention to Knewton - I wanted to meet them but unfortunately time ran out for me. I like the concept of personalized education.

New York Tech Day sponsors, promoters, and backers here are some lesson to learn:

• Armory is old & dreary - pick a better spot something bright shiny new
• Cramming tables end to end made it difficult to get around
• Mix it up - have the new meet the old they learn so much from us - we been around.

NY Tech Day 2012 think of this as a learning experience, for NY Tech Day 2013 there will be lots of awesomeness [remember to define awesome] and I look forward to it!

Schrodinger's Cat in the Box comes to life

I chose to write and illustrate about the thought experiment popularly known as Schrodinger’s  Cat. I’ve been interested in quantum physics since I was introduced in 1994. It wasn’t until a few years ago I started to realize why it is important to apply the Schrodinger’s Cat to life. We cheat ourselves by only looking at the surface of a thought, idea, and/or a decision. Schrodinger’s famous thought experiment teaches us there are many ways to examine, discover, uncover our own thoughts – to explain why.

The Other Side of the Box illustrates the many ways of seeing. It’s about the perception what we see and attempts to apply what we see in a fun  thought provoking way — through the eyes of a cat, specifically Blake the cat.

On a personal note, I found the Schrodinger’s Cat a comfort in explaining difficult situations.

More about “The Other Side of the Box” can be found on Slideshare, YouTube and LuLu:

• The box, the cat and the story
• The Other Side of the Box on YouTube
• My book can be purchased through LuLu.

The Changing World of Digital - looks at digital communication from a historical perspective and identifies the way the consumer changes from passive involvement to participant.

Community During Crisis – what Governments can learn from the Boulder Community’s usage of Social Media during the Boulder Fire.

Digital Experiences and Shopping - a look at the why we buy using digital and the effect digital has on the in-store shopping experience.

Digital Strategy - describes approaches to digital strategy to determine brand innovation, communication or promotion directions for using digital.

This was a tough decision for me to make considering the amount of investment I made in time, energy and money that I put into Sparkrelief and the leadership. As of August 1, 2011 I have not been involved with Sparkrelief, I can not validate the direction the organization is going.

Currently my names is associated with Sparkrelief, I asked that my name be removed from Sparkrelief, business and marketing documents, and not used in conversations.

If you need more details on why I have resigned please feel free to contact me directly.

Business leaders must realize the importance in the knowledge the seasoned professional has, how seasoned professional changes and adapts their knowledge to fit the trends. Equally important for helping younger professionals who don’t have the experience, perspective, wisdom and knowledge by leading, mentoring, cultivating, and educating them. As senior person in this very nascent industry [digital], my ambition is to motivate new talent to become the next generation of leaders, so that next generation of products/services/experiences are not narrowly focused, lacking perceptive and consideration of users. Users = profit.

Age should be a factor – in that factor the consideration of maturity, wisdom, experience, and perspective, which all have an impact on business and marketing strategy, client services, customers, production, creativity, and return on investment.

Types of available digital research tools:
Web site usage and traffic analytics
Alexa http://www.alexa.com
Quantcast http//www.quantcast.com
Compete http://www.compete.com
ComScore http://www.comscore.com

Search tool for analyzing search trends:
Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends

Social Media monitoring tools:
BlogPulsehttp://www.blogpulse.com
TribeVibehttp://www.tribevibe.com/
TweetSentimenthttp://tweetsentiments.com
CrowdEyehttp://www.crowdeye.com
Trendistichttp://trendistic.com/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
YouTube Insights for Audience: http://www.google.com/videotargeting/ifa/buildQuery

Mobile and digital devices analytics:
Admob http://metrics.admob.com/

Statistics for digital media usage:
Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Stats Counter http://gs.statcounter.com/

Other Helpful Sources:
Pew Internet and American Life Project http://pewinternet.org/
eMarketer http://www.emarketer.com/
Marketing Charts http://www.marketingcharts.com/
DigitalBuzz Blog http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com
Research Brief from the Center of Media Research
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Archives.showArchive&art_ty…

Tools for Online Focus Groups & Surveys:
Ask Your Target Market
http://askyourtargetmarket.com/

TWTpoll
http://twtpoll.com/

TwittPoll
http://twittpoll.com/

Survey Monkey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Survey Gizmo
http://www.surveygizmo.com/

Survey Gizmo Facebook App
http://www.surveygizmo.com/facebook-survey-app/

Survey Gizmo Using Facebook to Get Targeted Respondents
http://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/facebook-survey-respondents/

Zoomerang
http://www.zoomerang.com/

This great resource is from Dita Dau, Regis University.
Social Media/ Network Marketing
•     www.Namechk.com
•     www.Hootsuite.com
•     http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com (The 5 Pillars of a Social Media
Campaign)
•     http://mashable.com
•     http://ping.fm – free service that allows you to track and update
multiple social networking sites simultaneously (i.e., posting a
status to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all at the same time)
•     www.mixergy.com Interviews with many cutting edge people in the tech
and biz world.

________________________________________

Best Practices for Writing Content for SEO
•     http://ezinearticles.com/?Copywriting-Services—Best-Practices-For-S…
•     http://www.theorganicseo.com/

________________________________________

Social Networking for B2B
•     http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3695/linkedin-delivers-b2b-…
– Article about which B2B social networking sites get the most click-
through website visitors and which of their website links are visited
from which social media venues.
___________________________________________________________________________ ___
Photo Editing
•     www.picnik.com – free source for editing photos – very easy & fast.

________________________________________
Twitter
•     http://hootsuite.com/dashboard — a place to manage all your social
media, but especially improves on the basic Twitter dashboard
•     http://www.screentweet.com/ – shares videos, pictures, screen shots,
and images on Twitter
•     http://www.tweetdeck.com/ – Another Twitter dashboard to manage all
your social media- Twitter, Facebook, Linkin, Foursquare, and others.

________________________________________

Facebook
•     www.facebook.com/username – Once you have 25 fan page “likes” you
can change your vanity code. Need to login first in order to activate.

________________________________________
LinkedIn

________________________________________
YouTube – Viral Marketing

•     Social Media Revolution http://youtu.be/sIFYPQjYhv8
________________________________________
RSS Feeds – Content
•     Google Reader:  http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html
•     http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en
•     http://netvibes.com – Another rss reader, similar to google reader,
that allows you to change your theme or personalize your reading
options.
•     http://www.smminstitute.com/blog/2010/6/2/writing-your-first-blog-you…
– Article about blogging rather than rss feed, but still helpful in
developing content

________________________________________

SEO/Google
•     http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starte…
•     http://services.google.com/breeze/webmasters/googleforwebmasters/
•     http://www.google.com/analytics/tour.html
•     http://www.seocentro.com/tools/seo-tools.html.
•     www.google.com/sktools
•     http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
•     www.Seomoz.org

________________________________________
Interactive web design, art / design side of the business, look and
feel, usability architecture, site mapping, layout structure, color
schemes, and common trends in user behavior and navigation

•     http://www.gimp.org/ – Free image editing software
•     http://www.mobileawesomeness.com/ – Cool Mobile Sites
•     F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
•     http://www.bigbangtemplates.com – free source for
website templates.
•     http://www.getfirebug.com –  One of the most popular and most
popular web development tool. Checks speed and suggests tweaks for web
optimization.
•     http://www.wordpress.com – One of the best web design tools online.
You can change the look of the page and download various plugins.
•     http://blog.atlas-advertising.com/?p=1214 – Article about 10 vital
principles for web design
•     http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/index.htm – All about Eye
tracking theory
•     http://www.alistapart.com/ – explores the design, development, and
meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best
practices.
•     http://960.gs/ – Grid System templates in Fireworks, Flash,
InDesign, GIMP, Inkscape, Illustrator, OmniGraffle, Photoshop, Visio,
Exp. Design to help streamline web development and layout workflow.
•     http://www.uxbooth.com/ – great resource of articles on usability,
user experience, and interaction design.
•     www.mikogo.com FREE version of software like “GoToMeeting” makes it
easy to help customers complete forms or use other complicated parts
of websites
•     www.vchecksolutions.com Software allows clients to send a check to
your business online, without having to handwrite and mail

________________________________________
Website Building
•     www.joomla.org
•     Absolute Beginners Guide to Joomla! http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners
•     www.Sites.google.com — $10/year for a basic, no-frills website.
Free for a website with URL like http://sites.google.com/YourURLhere
•     Basic HTML: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
•     Basic SQL: http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp
•     JAVA script codes: http://www.javascriptfreecode.com
•     www.drupal.org – freeware web design software, very highly used
today
•     www.Shopify.com – is a quick and easy way to turn your website into
a usable store for people to purchase things and includes a mobile
technology… if you want to sell a product, go here

________________________________________
Creating an XML sitemap
•     http://www.xml-sitemaps.com

________________________________________

Trends
•     http://trendwatching.com/
•     http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/519
•     http://techcrunch.com
•     http://www.clickz.com
•     http://marketing.alltop.com/

________________________________________
Pay Per Click

•     http://adwords.google.com
•     http://www.ppchero.com
•     Parallel Path – PPC/SEO consultants in Boulder – http://www.parallelpath.com
•     https://adcenter.microsoft.com/
________________________________________

Ad Networks and Ad Servers

•     Double Click - http://adwords.google.com – The world’s top
marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in
ad serving, rich media, video, search and affiliate marketing to help
them make the most of the digital medium.

________________________________________
Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) software
•     www.Hubspot.com
•     http://www.salesforce.com
•     http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm
•     http://saleslogics.com/

________________________________________
Hosting and Domain
•     http://www.apthost.com/
•     http://www.whois.com/

________________________________________
Entrepreneurship Resources

Website templates
•     www.gavick.com Template club for Joomla Templates.
•     www.AVC.com

Online Start-up Resources
•     http://startuprockstars.com – provides entrepreneurial organizations
the vehicle to hone their presentation and pitching of their product
or service, including events to allow sharing & networking within the
entrepreneurial community.
________________________________________
Further Reading
•     What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis – how to think like the most
successful internet company
•     Waiting For Your Cat to Bark by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg – how
marketing is different now
•     Permission Marketing by Seth Godin – getting permission to send your
customers advertising
•     Seth’s Blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/ — the blog of
the aforementioned author
•     Trada  http://trada.com/blog/ — Pay-Per-Click experts
•     The Outsourcing Company- http://www.theoutsourcingcompany.com/ –
Social media marketing
•     Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff – social media 101 and
how to make useful
•     The Four Hour Workweek – Tim Ferriss – outsourcing your life
(includes web design, seo, etc)

________________________________________
Selling Ad Space
•     http://www.workz.com/content/view_content.html?section_id=515 – info
on selling ad space on your website directly
•     http://www.google.com/services/adsense_tour/index.html — Google
AdSense, for selling ads on your site

Over the past 15 plus years, I’ve been advisor to some of the best talent in the digital industry. The enthusiasm my students bring is at times inspirational and exhausting. The exhausting part is trying to teach these talented people about management and ethics.

This new breed of entrepreneurs bring the hope of exciting new businesses, products and in some cases industries. But most are inexperienced in management and lacking in formal business acumen. Some even dropped out of college and never even held a corporate job. Lately some of the questions I get asked from this new breed of entrepreneurs leads me to believe there needs to be a handbook on leadership for them.

Businesses are not just about the products produced and services supplied; business is about the employees (resources) that help you attain your objectives and promise of profitability. The relationships you cultivate with your employees can best be seen by the work environment you as a leader create. A good relationship with your employees can help in achieving optimum business results.

The question always posed, “are leaders born or made?” My answer some leaders are born but great leaders are made and trained. Leadership should be an important course that undergrads and graduate students should be required to take when studying business. Some higher educational institutions offer such courses. This is a great if you are attending school but what if you opt out? How do you achieve business success without understanding the basics of employee management?

Here is some very helpful advice on shaping yourself as leader – it’s about being the best leader for your business, employees, partners and investors.

In undergrad I took, “Modern Political Theory”, taught by Philip Zampini, PhD, at Albertus Magnus College. Before doing my MBA at Regis University this course was the closest course on leadership I took. Political philosophy may not be the best way to understand business management but it certainly taught me some important lessons about the human condition and leadership.

For instance Machiavelli wrote in Book III, Chapter XXIX, “Let not princes complain of the faults committed by the people subjected to their authority, for they result entirely from their own negligence or bad example”. The lesson for leaders is simple take responsibility for your actions there can be unintended consequences otherwise. The rule of “do as I say and not as do” is unacceptable and an outdated form of management. Employees learn by example, and as a leader you are setting that example. If you want the best leader for your employees set the right example for you employees to follow. Follow the “Golden Rule”. If don’t know what this is you can get a quick education from  Harry J. Gensler, S.J.

I also learned a few things from reading Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”. Sun Tze may not apply to modern business but some theories have valid application in today’s business world if thought through clearly. Such as, “Keep your friends/family close but your enemies closer”, I interpret this as watch your competition then buy them and consolidate.

But, it was Max DuPree, CEO of Herman Miller, offered me a thoughtful and empathic look at leadership in his “Leadership is an Art”.

Simple guiding principles:

1. Always take responsibility for your actions – pointing the finger at your employees only means you have no control.
2. Being honest creates less stress and doubt in the minds of your employees.
3. Be confident but not overly exuberant. Facts can always be traced.
4. The good for one employee, is not necessarily the good for all.
5. Divide and conquer never works in business.
6. Management by chaos only creates confusion and slows productivity.
7. Transparency is important especially in a start-up.
8. Be as strategic with hiring your resources as you are with your business strategy.
9. Employees work for you – they are not maids, servants, friends, relatives, lovers
10. Practicality and logic have its place in leadership so does empathy.
11. Leadership isn’t showmanship –  leadership provides business story, definitions, clarity, creates the team environment, but it’s not a three ring circus.
12. Find a mentor/advisor that’s a good business person someone you trust and admire and has a successful track record in running businesses, managing employees, and failing.
13. Teach your employees to manage you.
14. Management by objective, as Peter Drucker advises keeps your employees focused on the strategic objectives.
15. Dr. Smith, a character from Lost in Space would say, “Yours is not to question why yours to do as I say or die” not a good way to go! Employees who ask question are the most valuable employees of all.

Over the past several years there has been so much unethical behavior in business that it would be refreshing to see the new breed entrepreneurs adopt ethical practices to reflect a new breed of business leaders.

Full disclosure I’m an atheist, who believes ethics are an important part of a successful business. When you do you right by your employees, shareholders and customers from an ethical perspective you have a greater chance of succeeding for long term. Most of my ethical training was received from Regis University’s MBA program. Each business course had ethical considerations applied to it.

 The old rules and questions still apply to social media and are used to justify and substantiate plans and budgets:

• Why is are we doing this (objectives must have brand, business, and consumer directive)
• Who is the target market
• What is the message, content are we trying to convey
• Where is the target market (are they on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter)
• When is the best time to reach them

• How do we deliver? (tactic/channel)

Measuring success is not by the number of likes but how those likes translate into sales. Marketers must not shy away from measuring the acquisition, retention, and sales this should be an important part of every strategic plan.

Marketers can be easily seduced by sexiness of new types of digital channels such as social media but remember what happened in the early days of digital…so critical thinking still applies to digital.

If we continue to throw away the things we learn from past we’ll never understand the mistakes we are making now.

Thank you @sassymikita for bringing this to my attention!

• Crisis Commons provides acceptable form of communication using wiki
• Ushahidi has a crisis platform that incorporates crowdsourcing
• Google has person finder and crisis response page
• Several others individually providing crisis mapping and information

Crowdsourcing community during a disaster is a pragmatic direction for gathering help but it must be done in a uniformed, trackable way, so that information can be found by those who need it and by those providing it. There were several platforms, that grew from a simple bulletin board system to providing the means for housing during crisis. I believe Ushahidi will continue to provide the means for people in need.

Ushahidi is an nonprofit, that provides a means for community driven disaster relief and is working to create a platform that can be easily deployed for any natural disaster. Ushahidi will probably be the standard for community driven disaster relief.