Its hard to keep up with all the books coming out about social media for business. There are so many layers to this topic that entire (worthy) books have been MORE >>

One of the things I love about Europe (ok, France in particular) is the food shopping. They still go to the marché in Europe, an open street market, and buy meat from the boucherie, bread at the boulangerie, and cheese from the fromagerie. It’s worth it to go out of your way and make your purchases from people who are passionate about what they are doing. The experience is richer, and the quality of purchases far superior to the Supermarch é , an American throwback to the big box grocery store; a homogenous, concrete box with fluorescent lights, packaged goods and processed foods. MORE >>

When people, millions of them, gather around common interest and apply the influence of collective voices and buying power shift happens. People gathering together represents “tribes&# with common objectives and intents. Tribes are gather around anything, everything and everybody with the ability to influence markets, politics as well as entire economies. tribe consists of a social group gathering around common interest and intents. Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to groups organized largely on the basis of kinship. Where is the Evidence? MORE >>

Guest post by Kristina Allen , Online Marketing Manager at ion interactive , the makers of the LiveBall marketing optimization software. One of my favorite social marketing activities right now is creating Slideshare presentations. Slideshare is a directory of presentations. Think of it as YouTube, but for Powerpoint. really love creating short (read: easily consumable) but informative Slideshares ( view example ) and then socializing them with my networks. The presentations have been very effective content marketing pieces for me, and they can be for you as well. Use lots of visual metaphors. MORE >>

Are happy people dumb? just read that phrase in a Harvard Business Review blog and was offended. Because I’m happy. And I’m not dumb. But, of course, it enticed me to read on. The blogger, Shawn Achor , says, These sentiments are  not uncommon. believe we have a cultural assumption that happy people are anti-intellectual, delusional, or shallow. We’ve all heard the saying that “ignorance is bliss.&# But, in truth,  society has a fundamental ignorance about bliss. Here’s part of the problem. Everyone knows someone who is brilliant and unhappy. Let’s hear it! MORE >>