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Bringing back core principles and values...

...which for many of us never went away. However for many others, the core pursuit of money, and 'more' (listen to the lyrics) as a whole objective, has led to most of our world losing a grip on these important aspects. To be specific, were talking namely customer service and having generally accepted good values.

Quite often these are long forgotten in many areas, yet I notice are now creeping back on to the agenda more often as businesses suddenly wake up to this thing called 'social media', and become suddenly very aware of these very small, barely known web sites such as a thing called facebook and YouTube to name a few tiny web sites...

Sarcasm aside, Gary Vaynerchuk is a strong advocate for customer service and good values and recently joined the 'podfather' Leo Laporte and 'Geekess' Amber MacArthur on the net@nite podcast. One topic discussed, which is a core thread through all of Gary's work, is his love for customer service, and how he appreciates and uses these interactions he has with his customers, across all his work. It's refreshing stuff as there just isn't enough focus on this, and yet for most of us in business, it should be #1 on our list!

A great interview and refreshing stuff as usual, when either of these three people are involved. Click the post title to get hold of the stream/mp3 or format that suits you best.

Posted by Stephen Scott

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Social Media, and the truth.

In a world where bullshit comes in styles and flavours, is expertly packaged and available for one low, low payment (with a hidden APR of 35%), it's somewhat of a relief to sometimes just.hear.the.truth.

It's a rare and beautiful, integral thing to our lives, but so often hidden behind political correctness and politeness. And yet its what a lot of us always seek. The truth about ourselves, friends, partners, what they are thinking, the true cost, the true meaning, you name it.

So as my career and life is so intertwined with the web in every way, I get to meet, read, listen to, and hear from, social media and web consultants and many 'self proclaimed experts' everyday, telling me what the the web is all about, and where its going. And the real truth is... many just don't have a clue. A classic give away is they often cant talk in plain english. You also begin to to hone your senses pretty well to what some say.

The real truth is, the web is all about people. Us. You and me, them, him and her, ALL of us. Not just about who has the most followers, the latest book, the most tweets, or states they are more qualified than others. You can get the truth, and often do, from those who have none of the above, and truthfully speaking its what's always worked the best for me.

Gary Vaynerchuk, speaks the truth about the web, and the social connections and the world he has helped build in this short clip below. To me it's heart-warming.

And that's the truth.

Posted by Stephen Scott

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Google Reader - Innovate or die.

An RSS addict for many years, I have a ton of feeds, and since around late 2002 I carted around these feeds from app to app. It's always been key to my research, work, updates, and connection points with friends around the world. I was a faithful Bloglines boy for many years as Google had no entry in this reader space. And when they finally did join, it was quite unusable. Earlier this year I had seen the writing on the wall (read stagnation) with Bloglines refusal to do any innovation or bug fixes, and jumped ship despite Google reader still not progressing.

I truly settled in in March, ported across all my several hundred feeds, and began to appreciate reader. It was good timing. And in the last three months alone, Google readers team have been innovating like madmen on speed, and adding some intelligent and long overdue social aspects to the tool almost daily it seems. In essence, if you don't innovate in web land, you die in web land.

I've seen 14 new friends also share and join in the last month alone, and pass on and comment on what they like and are reading. If your not on-board yet...do it! It'll save you time, simplify and prioritise your surfing, and allow you to connect and share much more with others good links and information. It's also pretty addictive and has become one of my most used daily sites.

I'm hungry to read what your reading and share more of what I'm reading, so click on the posts title to join in, or if you don't yet have an account a link on the right hand side of that same page to Get started with Google Reader will get you going.

Despite some really, really poor estimation that RSS is dead from TechCrunch earlier this year, and that we shoudl all just use Twitter...( Personally I believe many like me are beginning to get a little tired of Twitters deluge of updates, spam, and Ashton Kutcher/Opera geek wannabes.) RSS it's very much just getting started for the mainstream public, more so now that it comes with facebook like sharing capabilities. Sharing is not dead, is not a fickle 'trend' and is always a good thing in my book. Go get your feed on.

Posted by Stephen Scott

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TED#3: Too much choice...equals paralysis.

Continuing this short series of my favourite TED talks; Psychologist Barry Schwartz talks about what can be a bad thing we have in western societies, namely: freedom of choice. He shows choice has made us not freer but more paralysed. Many of us today with endless choices, are not happier at all and much more dissatisfied than we have ever been.

In a web sense, this is something I believe has poisoned many web sites structures and strategic directions today, and combined with the old adage of 'too many cooks' , leads to an overly dilluted user experience. If ever it were true, today, less in our lives, is so very, very much more.

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TED#1: The web is amazing, yet were not amazed.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. This has now expanded and is well known for (amongst others things) it's excellent TEDtalks.

A short series of my favourites kicks off here with Kevin Kelly. A great one to open your mind, and well the short investment of your time. Of course Kevin covers a subject close to my heart, that I'm (some would say, and they'd be right) obsessed about, namely the web.

Enough talk. Watch and learn why the web is truly amazing. Yet for most, were just not amazed...

Posted by Stephen Scott

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Bringing back core principles and values...

Social Media, and the truth.

Google Reader - Innovate or die.

TED#3: Too much choice...equals paralysis.

TED#1: The web is amazing, yet were not amazed.