Facebook’s latest response to Google+

First thing I thought of when Google+ launched a few months ago was that they were making a big promotional mistake by making their USP (unique selling proposition) the fact that they allow users to create “circles”.

Why did I think it was a mistake?

One of the key things I remember that my strategic management prof would drill into our heads back in business school was to always differentiate between a “competitive advantage” and a “sustainable competitive advantage”. In Google’s case, the circle feature was clearly the former. In other words, a competitive advantage with a short lifespan; something that competitors could easily replicate.

Kuala Lumpur & Singapore Social Media Workshop & Trip Debrief

Now that I’ve finally begun to adjust back to Ottawa time from the 13hr difference, I thought I’d share a few highlights from my recent trip to the other side of the planet. First of all, I’d like to start off by giving a big thanks to everyone at FIK International for inviting me down and being such gracious hosts. The venue, transportation, logistics, and of course the food, were all flawless.

Why you need to focus on mobile right now

I recently switched smartphones (now representing 50% of the worldwide cell phone market) from RIM‘s Blackberry Storm to Apple’s iPhone 3GS. Why did I do it, and more importantly why should you care?

The first reason is simple. On November 5th, 2009 Telus released the iPhone, finally taking the Canadian network monopoly away from Rogers (i.e. not my provider of choice to put it lightly).