This week Jeff Cutler (@jeffcutler) and Christine Koh (@bostonmamas) were the oh-so-gracious hosts for the Boston #fordtaurus Tweetup (see the new Ford Taurus SHO and drive it!)  The local event was part of a grand tour (The Summer of Taurus) for the new cars, pairing the vehicles in different cities with local Twitterati/bloggers and a (semi-random) Ford executive.  (Boston’s event brought Corporate Counsel David Leitch out from Detroit.)  There were lots of interesting PR, Social Media, events and business lessons to be picked up from the Ford event.  Here are just a few:

(more…)

Reading the physical paper is a vastly different experience than reading the same stories online.  Not saying it is better — just different.  And that difference told a very interesting story at the Boston Globe recently.

One way reading a physical paper is different from reading online is being able to see at a glance all the stories on a page — and not just the headlines and the links, but the whole story, bylines and all.  In this case, the story told is one of lay-offs,  an increased use of freelancers and people trying to make a living any way they can. (more…)

Last week I was a guest on PTV Live (Permission TV’s weekly Internet show).  True to form, some of the most interesting conversations started before the cameras were rolling.  I have a feeling I’ll be rolling out a number of blog posts based on those exchanges. Here’s the first:  Who cares what Michael Arrington says? (I know, I know…last year’s news but knowing your history never hurts.) (more…)

I was reading Chris Brogan’s Blog — always highly recommended — and one of his recent posts, Quid Pro No, got me thinking about how some social networking websites are un-naturally inflating their user numbers by creating an environment where reciprocal friending is de rigueur.  Everything from address scraping to spammy auto-tweeting when your friends sign up, to old-fashioned guilt is used to get you to sign-up for sites you never intend to visit again. (more…)