My father was fond of telling a particular shaggy dog joke on the theme of how to cook a carp. A carp, as you might know, is a bottom-feeding, oily, freshwater fish. Not exactly considered something you'd normally eat. So, the story goes something to the effect that you place the carp on a …
on Business
Semiotic Pie
This first appeared in the DragonSearch Blog in January 2014 Friend and marketer Ty Sullivan questioned the relevancy of this Capital One ad. He suggested there was marketing disconnect. I, on the other hand, think the ad is, if not the work of an advertising genius, pretty …
Social Media as Trend
Originally published in Trends Journal, October 2013 We’ve always had social media. Sitting around a campfire telling stories is fundamentally social, with the air around our heads being the medium, populated by human voices. Sixteenth Century denizens of Florence and Rome were known to tie notes …
You’re OK, Now Let’s Make Change
First published on DragonSearch 26 Sep 2013 As a young couple in the 70’s, my parent’s library consisted of a closet bookshelf. I developed my love of reading by carefully studying the pages of the Manual of the Medical Department of the U.S. Navy, Jansen’s History of Art, Kahil …
Of Bosses and Essentials
Note; this post was originally published on BeALeader. The word “boss” causes me to flinch. Perhaps it’s in memory of the movie Cool Hand Luke where the cruel prison guards were all called “Boss.” When one of my teammates introduces me thus, I inevitably try to readjust with …
The AIDA Model & Elias St. Elmo Lewis
Note: I wrote this post some time ago back in 2011. The original post has since disappeared, so I thought I'd republish it here, along with a string of interesting comments on the original post. While writing Social Marketology, my new book on social media marketing, I get fixated on a …
Sets in the City
While Network Theory has been all the rage in discussions of social media, it provides an imperfect model to describe the reality of social networks. The main shortcoming is that the connections between entities are more complex than simple “ties” – and they include a notion of time. I …
Social Panopticon
History seems to be scattered with a certain type of remarkable individual who defies typecasting. They exemplified eccentricity, and reveled in inventing new objects as well as new ways of looking at the world. Buckminster Fuller comes to mind, as well as Benjamin Franklin and Jeremy …