Image by alshepmcr It’s a strange world we live in online. Delusions of grandeur call, singing like that sweet Siren in the midst of the sea. To win, we must appear like we are Doing Important Things, but in the end we find our lives dashed on the rocks. I’m speaking about the competitive rat race to see who can get the most social media rock star badges; keynotes, books, followings, awards, blog mentions, yeah! I have to admit, I got caught up in this hooplah again during the past year. Then I looked at my real life (the one I physically walk around in), and my toddler clinging to my pants leg crying every time I moved to the …

I’m personally thrilled to participate in two charitable efforts to help children this month because of the incredible impact my daughter Soleil has made in my life. It’s just amazing how love for a child changes you. This love eclipses anything you could possibly know beforehand. For example, I would do anything for Soleil. I would die if it meant she would live, and I’ve never felt that way about anything else. Cliche, but true. It’s just like that. Geoff Livingston on Google+

A flurry of recent business travel caused me to miss a lot of time with this little girl over the spring. It’s always the hardest part of being gone. Perhaps because of her age (1 1/2) or the absences, she insists on enjoying every moment with me. I’m the play guy. The combination makes balancing my work and online life all the more critical. See, I got one shot at this. Just one shot to be Soleil’s Dad. Geoff Livingston on Google+

Good free content attracts people. If successful, it builds an expectation of more free content and time. This creates problems for small businesses and individual content creators (bloggers, photographers, etc.). First, once people get free stuff, they want more. More content, more time, even services and goods for free. They ask for it, and voice dissatisfaction when told they must pay. When told that some offerings are paid, communities and customers even get angry. Geoff Livingston on Google+

Sales, marketing, branding and ROI drive much of today’s conversation about how to use social, content marketing and interactive. Yet it’s a missed opportunity when companies and nonprofits don’t use their sites to learn more about their stakeholders. Surveying customers, harnessing data, and determining topical interests can help organizations better understand their customers, serve them with better information, and in turn, increase many desired marketing key performance indicators. Lower cost technologies make learning easier today, whether that’s using interstitial survey technologies, CRM tracking tools, or analytics. I talked recently with Everyday Health VP of Market Research Carolina Petrini about how they are using Crowd Science to learn more about their stakeholders. They wanted to go beyond knowing that their readers …

So goes the chorus of the classic Kinks tune, “Father Christmas.” A funny punk commentary that cuts right to the core of what Christmas has become to our culture, a time to get stuff, or preferably just some money (bonus, boss?). Consumerism has become our value set. Looking good, having things, freedom to buy things, these are all of great value to the American mindset. Image by Yomanimus Yet when you consider the top five things the dying consider on their death bed, no where do you see money or stuff on the list. Nor do you see popularity or massive follower counts on it (booyah, Klout). Instead, the dying wish they had focused on things like spending more time …