I love planning. It could be a Virgo thing, since the smell of flip chart paper and new pens is almost as sweet as fresh leaves on a fall day. With November at our feet, it is a great time to start to plant some seeds for your 2013 career and business plans. recorded a video to help you do this exercise. won’t be offended. link]. MORE >>

A new survey shows that more small business owners are not only using social media but they are willing to pay for help. As a marketer turned technology CEO, I'm more convinced than ever before that small businesses need to leverage the power of social media to grow their business. But they need to do it in a smart, efficient way. So are they? MORE >>

Is Twitter making the world a better place? think it is. You could argue it is just a short messaging service for people who want to share what they are eating, where they a going and what they are doing, but don’t most smart people agree there is something more to it than just that? Isn’t that in itself making the world a better place? MORE >>

Top sales guru Jeff Thull, in his book Exceptional Selling, offers some unique perspective on closing the sale. If I were to make a list of my all-time favorite "how to sell" books, it would definitely feature Exceptional Selling by Jeff Thull. Here they are, along with my own interpretation and comments: 1. Plan ahead and it will seem more natural. MORE >>

In a panel on Big Data last week at Cognizant Community I cited several examples from the New Florence blog collected over the last few years – National Hurricane Center, Union Pacific, U of Washington’s ENCODE project, Social Media analytics. Enterprise Software (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP) Outsourcing (IBM, Accenture, EDS MORE >>