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I’m always reading something to keep up with this crazy fast paced industry and the latest book I’ve been devouring is “What Would Google Do” by Jeff Jarvis.

This is a fascinating read that while it talks about Google and the way Google as a company operates…their business practices and philosophies…why they work so well… the book  really isn’t about Google. It’s about using Google’s successful business model and applying it in to own business as we move into the Web 2.0 ‘Google’ world….

It’s about being open and transparent.  And as the book itself states- in the end it’s about You.

The rules have changed. Consider this your rule book to doing business now and into the future.

I challenge you to read this and NOT find something useful that you can apply to your own business or see new and exciting opportunities. You can pick up a copy at Amazon.com or major bookstores. I highly recommend it.

If you have read it, I would love to hear your feedback- what was your favorite chapter or specific quote from the book?

It’s time for the Lawrence Twestival at Jo Shmo’s  tonight!

What is a Twestival you say?

As Ben Smith, the organizer of the event describes on the official Lawrence Twestival blog,  a Twestival is a joining together of Twitter users, connecting for a common cause and coming together for an offline event similar to a Tweetup. The big difference with the Twestival is that it is a fundraising event for a designated charity.  For the Twestival Local each participating city designates a local charity who receives 100% of the funds raised. For the Lawrence Twestival, the designated local charity is the Lawrence Humane Society.

Check out http://lawrence.twestival.com to get more details and order tickets.

Come join the fun and be part of a very special social media event!

Think Social Media is just a fad?

Watch this amazing video by  Eric Qualman from Socialnomics

If this doesn’t change your mind I don’t know what will.

Stats from Video (sources listed below by corresponding #)

1. By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network
2. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
3. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
4. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
5. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia
6. Yet, some sources say China’s QZone is larger with over 300 million using their services (Facebook’s ban in China plays into this)
7. comScore indicates that Russia has the most engage social media audience with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month – Vkontakte.ru is the #1 social network
8. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
9. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
10. % of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%
11. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
12. Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama
13. 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
14. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
15. What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
16. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
17. Wikipedia has over 13 million articles…some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica…78% of these articles are non-English
18. There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
19. 54% = Number of bloggers who post content or tweet daily
20. Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth
21. If you were paid a $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia you would earn $156.23 per hour
22. Facebook USERS translated the site from English to Spanish via a Wiki in less than 4 weeks and cost Facebook $0
23. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
24. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
25. People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them
26. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
27. Only 14% trust advertisements
28. Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
29. 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
30. Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009
31. 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video…on their phone
32. According to Jeff Bezos 35% of book sales on Amazon are for the Kindle when available
33. 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
34. In the near future we will no longer search for  products and services they will find us via social media
35. More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.
36. Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy Listening first, selling second
37. Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser