The following story is entirely true. More importantly, I swear on my entire professional reputation and all I hold dear to me that the story below was in no way staged, planned in advance, or in any way faked. This is real. And most importantly: This is AMAZING. When my alarm clock went off at 3:30 this morning, I knew I was in for a long day. I was catching a 7am flight out of Newark to Tampa, Florida, for a lunch meeting in Clearwater, then heading back to Newark on a 5pm flight, getting me in around 8:10pm, and with any luck, to my apartment by 9 or so. We all have days like that, they happen from time [...]

Another in the continuing series of How to Be Taken Seriously – This one involves knowing when NOT to talk. I used to have this totally insane, very loud friend, who’d call me up on random weekdays and be all like, “I don’t want to go to work today. Let’s go to a spa.” I usually turned her down, but the one time I went, I remember the spa having a sign that’s stuck with me to this day. It said simply… “Embrace the Silence.” The concept was simple. You were in a spa. You were waiting for your treatment, or just got out of one. You were relaxed. It was quiet. There was no need to talk, or jump [...]

So who’s going to Blogworld in November in Los Angeles? Guess who’s keynoting it? And guess what – Entering code PETER on this registration page will save you a TON of cash on registration. Seriously. It will, on TOP of the early registration discount. Go register now, and we’ll have a massively good time in LA.

I was going to call this article “All “Social Media Experts” need to go die in a fire,” but I figured I should be nicer than that. But my title stands. If you call yourself a “Social Media Expert,” don’t even bother sending me your resume. No business in the world should want a “Social Media Expert” on their team. They shouldn’t want a guru, rock-star, or savant, either. If you have a “Social Media Expert” on your payroll, you’re wasting your money. Being an expert in Social Media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make [...]

When I boarded my flight Wednesday morning from Denver to Houston to connect to a flight to Asheville for my speech on Thursday, I tweeted out a question. I said “I’ve got roughly five hours in the air today. How can I help you? You’ve got 45 minutes to respond.” And people did! So briefly, here’s what people asked, and my answers: @andreahrizk said that she needs exposure about a shortage of interactive talent in the advertising industry, and included a link: http://imediaconnection.com/content/28737.asp – I think she has a point – Small interactive ad shops can’t offer the same “possibility of instant riches” that tech startups, whether they be in a basement or in the Google offices, can. As such, [...]