My Recommendation About Your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

By Tim Berry

A couple of weeks ago I was in a classroom full of entrepreneurial MBA students, as a guest speaker, answering their questions about me and Palo Alto Software and bplans.com, this blog, and so forth. When they asked me how I managed my online self in social media, my response went something like this: I... Read More »

Social Media Business Reality Check

By Tim Berry

I took a one-hour flight over the weekend and ended up talking to a smart business owner — she has a bakery in a small town in Oregon — who doesn’t have any Web presence. What’s really cool is that her business, as she described it, is doing just fine. She makes a good living,... Read More »

Read This Before Hiring a Coach or Consultant

By Tim Berry

May I call it the expert business? It’s kind of like a zoo (no offense intended). There are coaches of all varieties, from business to life to style, to executive and leadership and others. And management consultants, planning consultants, strategy consultants, marketing consultants, public relations consultants, etc. And designers and programmers, project managers, event planners,... Read More »

You Are Always Being Judged. Deal With It.

By Tim Berry

I overheard (couldn’t help it; waiting in line) somebody complaining about social media metrics like the Klout score, a measurement of influence. She said: “What’s up with these people to try to judge and rank people?” And I thought to myself: 1. You are always being judged and evaluated… A couple of generations ago we... Read More »

5 Steps for Dealing with Social Media Malice

By Tim Berry

Let’s say you’re involved in social media for your business and you’re the victim of a social-media attack. Somebody you don’t really know singles you out because he’s mad at your company, or had a bad day, or whatever; and launches an attack out of the blue, mentions you and the company you work for,... Read More »

For Better Market Research Get Real Clicks not Fake Answers

By Tim Berry

For real information, watching what people do is way better than asking them what they think, what they did, or, the worst case, what they intend to do. That’s why I like this new click-based and search-based research so much.  Don’t go with what people say; go with what they do. A great recent example... Read More »

Social Media = Conversation. With the Mike On. In a Large Room. And the Record Button Pressed

By Tim Berry

I just read about a university student who was dismissed from the football team because he complained about the coach on his Facebook page. And there, in this person’s unfortunate plight, we get a good reminder: a lot of what happens in social media feels private, but isn’t. It’s publishing. It’s that feeling of private... Read More »

Google Buzz Explodes the Myth of First Mover Advantage. Again.

By Tim Berry

Somewhere in the 1980s we coined the phrase “first mover advantage.” Right or wrong, I associate it in my mind with the birth of Compaq Computer, in the middle 1980s. Compaq’s original 34-pound sewing-machine-sized computer was dubbed the first compact computer. Luggable was more accurate. And it wasn’t the first, either. This bugs me. “But... Read More »

Social Media Means People and, Eventually, Maybe, Friends

By Tim Berry

It was one of those sudden-realization moments for me. I was talking to one of my favorite lawyers last night at a local startups event (smartups.org). He mentioned a person I’d sent to him a couple weeks ago. That person had asked me to recommend a small business lawyer, and I recommended him. The realization... Read More »

Technology vs Productivity vs Expectations, Oh My

By Tim Berry

This post title should be recited to the tune of “lions, tigers, and bears, oh my;” that is if you’re old enough to remember The Wizard of Oz, or young (at heart) enough to have seen it as a rerun. It’s rhythmic and its cyclical and it never stops. Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn are... Read More »