I enjoyed going to a kickoff event Tuesday night for Keith Ferrazzi’s book tour for his new book, Who’s Got Your Back.  This is a followup on his earlier bestselling book, Never Eat Alone.  He drew an audience of about 300 at the Grand Hyatt hotel. 

I had read a galley copy of the book Read More...

I enjoyed tonight’s talk by Peter Thiel at NYC Junto, on “How New Technologies Thwart Government and Promote Freedom”. Junto is a libertarian-focused discussion group organized by Victor Niederhoffer. I’ve been following Peter’s writing for a while, since we overlap directly in our interests in investing and in online networks. Peter is President of Clarium Read More...

I got a very nice private message on Ecademy this week from a reader — always rewarding to hear that what you’re doing is making a difference in people’s businesses:
Reposted with permission
Hi Scott!
Just wanted to write and say hello. I’ve read just about everything you’ve written at About.com and I’ve read your blog a few Read More...

HP.com Chief Architect Pete Johnson, who I met here in Austin a couple of months ago, has posted a review of The Virtual Handshake on his blog (also made the front page of TechDispenser).
Pete was particularly taken with our “7 Keys to a Powerful Network” framework, which triggered one of those ah-hah moments for him:
This Read More...

This week, Jason Alba is doing a series of posts about his blogging secrets. This is a great guide for how to effectively build relationships and your personal brand with your blog.
One of the tips that came up in the comments on his Day 1 post was the matter of using a signature in your Read More...

I received a message today from a reader of The Virtual Handshake who had a success with one of the techniques presented in the book:
One thing that caught my attention in The Virtual Handshake is when you told the story about the gentleman who didn’t know the person’s email address who he wanted to email. Read More...

Nitron Advisors’ COO, Scott Lichtman, took detailed notes on last Thursday’s panel on “The State of Independent Research” at the New York Society of Security Analysts. It was a well-attended event that covered questions ranging from how independent research firms are capturing value through new delivery models to the impact of Elliot Spitzer’s global research Read More...

Users of online dating sites often struggle to find love because the sites themselves make it more difficult than it needs to be. To the rescue: Virtual Dates, an online ice-breaker from Jeana Frost of Boston University, Michael Norton of HBS, and Dan Ariely of MIT.
More: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5478.html

Their advice about online dating (which also applies to Read More...

According to the NY Times:
The amount of Internet buzz a movie generates is a strong predictor of its box-office take. But it hardly matters whether that buzz is good or bad, according to a study by Yong Liu, an assistant professor of marketing at the Eller College of Business at the University of Arizona.
I’d love Read More...

HBS Professor Andrei Hagiu is an expert on multi-sided markets, and recently interviewed me on that topic: Market Platform Dynamics–Catalyst Conversation: Conversation with David Teten. His site requires that you submit an email address to read the article (but I should note that he doesn’t actually test if the email address is functional.)