Gavin Baker

Almost everyone has a cell phone these days.  A good number of us have smartphones and regardless if they are of the iPhone or Android variety, apps developed for them are changing how we shop.   Online2Offline (O2O) is THE nut to crack, we’ve had glimmers of hope with Google AdWords and with Facebook advertising but apps like TheFind and companies like Amazon and eBay are leading the charge to make it easy for us to do a quick price check.  Allowing shoppers to scan great buys with our phones.  Expanding our options to buy in-store or just maybe…we’ll find a better deal online.

Read the read of my thoughts about this topic on the Moxley Carmichael New Streak Blog – Holiday shopping made merrier with mobile.

Facebook, you know the social network that started for college kids has headed back to it’s roots in a unique way….an MBA.   The London School of Business and Finance is now offering their Global MBA courses on Facebook.  What I find most compelling is not that it’s being offered on Facebook – I find it amazing that they are offering all the content for free.

Read the read of my thoughts about this topic on the Moxley Carmichael New Streak Blog – Facebook moves to the head of the class.

Last week, I wrote a post on the New Streak (where I blog for work), on my participation on a panel at the Entrepreneurial Imperative 2010, a conference focused on entrepreneurship and hosted here in Knoxville, TN.  I’d highly recommend this conference as it’s one of the biggest groupings of entrepreneurial minded folks I’ve seen in Knoxville.

My session was wittily titled “Social Networking – Untangling the Web of Cutting Edge Technology.”  I talked about marketing for startups and particularly on if Facebook or Twitter was a better place to start your marketing efforts. Wondering where I suggested?  Check out the post for the full answer.

Related articles

• UT connects executives, students in new venture (knoxnews.com)

I finished reading The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick this week and I found it incredibly captivating!  I hope to do a larger review later, but in short it covers the company from before inception in Zuckerberg’s dorm room to his more recent World Economic Forum appearences.

You may not care about the details of the venture capital financing they’ve received, but you’ll be certain to find interesting the simplistic genius that exists in Facebook as it continues to grow into the role it plays in my, and your lives today.

Pick up a copy – you’ll be glad you did.

But don’t just take my word for it, below is a bit from Michael Arrington’s review at TechCrunch.

Here’s my recommendation: If you are interested in startups, or how marketing and advertising are evolving, or just how Facebook is changing the world, buy this book. It’s very readable and gives great insights into how Facebook grew from a dorm room to a huge company. There’s no other book out there that gives such a complete history of the company and of Mark Zuckerberg.

Related articles

• The Social Network Movie vs Facebook’s True Story (chasingthefrog.com)
• Live-blog: Zuckerberg and David Kirkpatrick on the Facebook Effect (Kim-Mai Cutler/VentureBeat) (techmeme.com)