Beware the dangers of (anti)social media

This was a guest post published on Quest PR’s blog, garnering seven tweets:

With 25 per cent of our time spent on social networks and blogs – a 9% increase since 2007 – it’s hard to envisage our appetite for virtual voyeurism and sharing the banal minutiae of our life abating any time soon.

Where people gather in large numbers, be it physically or digitally, businesses try to get their voice heard – and the big brands often succeed. For example, on Facebook Nike is ‘liked’ by 2,129,862 acolytes and Aston Martin by 330,579, while on Twitter Marvel Entertainment boasts 78,087 followers and Starbucks 80,943.

However, while social media can give you impressive reach for a negligible investment, for all but the coolest of brands it’s fiendishly difficult to build and sustain an audience through a medium where billions of other websites are a few mouse clicks and keystrokes away.

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Microsoft’s huge gamble

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spied an opportunity to strengthen Windows

This piece about Microsoft’s $8.5bn acquisition of Skype showcases my ability to write stock-market news and about mid-market sales.

Although most of my writing for BusinessesForSale.com has covered small businesses – the newsagent, the pub buyer or the subpostmaster – we do cover million-pound plus revenue enterprises too.

Soaring petrol prices fuelling shift in shopping habits

Worker Cooperatives: A Route To A Fairer, More Productive Capitalism?

From Bdaily: There used to be an unspoken bargain at the heart of western capitalism: bosses happily raised wages, which were then spent on goods and services, thereby boosting bosses’ profits.

Income inequality in the industrialised economies shrank sharply between the end of World War Two and the 1970s.

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Genius: born or made?

From BusinessWings.co.uk: The Cambridge dictionary defines ‘genius’ as “a very great and rare natural ability or skill”.

I’m not one to question the authority of such a reputable publication. But a growing body of research suggests that, far from being innate, genius is something one can learn, primarily through sheer hard work and determination.

Of course, a strong correlation exists between IQ and achievement. Nevertheless, research suggests that the proportion of people with IQs in the top 1% of the population that actually achieve greatness in any given field is surprisingly low.

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Genius: born or made?

The Cambridge dictionary defines ‘genius’ as “a very great and rare natural ability or skill”.

I’m not one to question the authority of such a reputable publication. But a growing body of research suggests that, far from being innate, genius is something one can learn, primarily through sheer hard work and determination.

If you look at supposedly natural-born geniuses throughout the ages, how many of them excelled at their particular area without dedicating their lives to it?

Of course, a strong correlation exists between IQ and achievement. Nevertheless, research suggests that the proportion of people with IQs in the top 1% of the population that actually achieve greatness in any given field is surprisingly low.

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Ask the expert: how do I find a franchise?

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Keynes, Balls, austerity and what voters deserve

From The Commentator: Ed Balls’ recent announcement that Labour would prepare its Shadow Budget within Coalition spending limits came less than two weeks after the IMF urged George Osborne to slow the pace of cuts.

So why did the Shadow Chancellor meekly abandon his position just as it received tacit endorsement from an organisation that was hitherto austerity’s biggest cheerleader?

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Do Dragon’s Den and the Apprentice truly promote entrepreneurialism?