Personally I’m a very logical person and though past boyfriends would say I’m cheap. I’m actually more about value and making sure I don’t have to spend my money twice. I rather spend more up front to have a product last longer then just get the cheapest item. However, sometimes the cheapest item does make sense.

Moxie looks at synapses and how that can help a brand gain market share and gain customers in the long run. Please our minds and you just may gain market share. That’s an overly simplifications of the article. Check it out for a lovely Monday read.

Share of Synapse = Share of Market

If there’s any doubt about the value of investing time in culture, there are significant benefits that come from a vibrant and alive culture:

Focus: Aligns the entire company towards achieving its vision, mission, and goals.
Motivation: Builds higher employee motivation and loyalty.
Connection: Builds team cohesiveness among the company’s various departments and divisions.

Facebook shared research this week about distant contacts being the reason tons of content gets shared on the social network. Distant contacts is really just another name for weak (interpersonal) ties and how they can be powerful connections for sharing:

In mathematical sociology, interpersonal ties are defined as information-carrying connections between people. Interpersonal ties, generally, come in three varieties: strong, weak, or absent. Weak social ties, it is argued, are responsible for the majority of the embeddedness and structure of social networks in society as well as the transmission of information through these networks.

And even more powerful for gaining new business:

The modern approach to business networking is based on the principle of weak ties: having a wide range of acquaintances can be far more helpful than having just a few good friends. Weak ties are also useful for activists who need to mobilize large protest or action groups.

With that said. Quality still matters when it comes to weak ties. You don’t want to have too many people within your network that you can’t remember. With 800+ million people on Facebook and it being one of the largest countries in the world by population. It’s important to remember its more like the real world then we care to admit when we try to market on it.

A person walks up to the machine and enters a text code or swipes a bar code from their smartphone. They then can select one of six flavours, such as Key lime pie or strawberry cheesecake.

The mobile use is designed to prevent anyone from getting more than one sample a day, said Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation for consumer experiences at Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft. The machine won’t store phone numbers, but it will develop metrics about what customers like based on age or gender.

The high-tech vending machines are being tested in Chicago and New York and could roll out across grocery stories before the year end. When a kid does step up to the machines, they get this message:

“Sorry, kid. You’re too young to experience indulgence like this. Please step away so the adults can get their free treat.”

This is a great way to get sampling out in the market and not having to hire tons of people to stand in malls or at major intersections as is the current process.

Top 3 Posts By Page Views

1. Paid Social Media Monitoring and Measurement Tools: The (almost) Complete Guide
2. TweetDeck’s Multiple Accounts: How to make sure you only post to one account
3. Infographic: Marketing Map Integration

Interestingly enough, these are the same top three posts by unique users. It only changes when you look at time on site. You’ve parts of my portfolio and lists featuring Toronto, Melbourne and Sydney and the local advertising & digital agencies in each of those cities as when people spend tons of time on my site.

Conan O’Brien’s 2011 Dartmouth College Commencement Address

It has been a crazy & rocky year of mostly positives and a few negatives. I’ve to say getting dumped by a guy I was dating started me on this crazy good journey.

Good:
* Paying off my student debt & becoming debt free at 29.
* Moving to Australia in September to live for 7 6 months after finding a job and a place to live in 30 days.
* Launching eat:Strategy conference in June (start planning for next 2012 soon).
* Travelling to Austin, New Year, Chicago, San Francisco (twice for speaking gigs)

Bad:
* Not making as much money as I’d like and hopped for in Australia.
* Losing focus & becoming slightly depressed in May over something that wasn’t important

When I look back on 2011. I achieved more then I could have hopped for by following my heart & passion. I also trusted AND invested in myself one idea at a time. Above all I planned through a few back up plans for each idea and didn’t waste any time… outside of my rocky May and being depressed. A good kick in the bum, which I gave myself, got me back on track. To 2012 and all our hopes & dream.

NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey company, has a research study out about why we do and don’t friend people on Facebook. And also why we unfriend someone as well.

Friends & Frenemies: Why We Add and Remove Facebook Friends