Latest
Catch up on Alex’s latest publications and appearances here.
Get the latest blog posts delivered!
Find out when Alex is in the news
10 things to do while waiting for your domain name to propagate
Mar 17, 2011 | Lifestyle
Most of the time the Internet does a very good job of creating the illusion that everything can now be instantaneous. You're on the phone with a colleague on the other side of the world, editing a Google Doc together, and the second you see that typo appear she...
5 steps to create your social media toolkit
Mar 16, 2011 | Career, Top Strategy Posts, Top Career Posts
Building a social media presence around a specific area of expertise is your best way to connect with a network and audience that cares about your work, and gets real value from your online contributions. This blog post walks you through the 5 steps that will get you up and running with three tools that will let you build and maintain a credible online presence as an expert: a Wordpress blog, a Google Reader account and a Twitter presence managed through HootSuite.
The 5 requirements for a starter social media presence
Mar 14, 2011 | Career
What are the 5 factors that shape the investment you’re willing to make in social media? I hear about the same key considerations from a lot of people, so I’ve spelled them out as the requirements for the easy to set up, easy to maintain presence I will map out in this series.
How I do it: Internet edition
Mar 14, 2011 | Self
Twitter and the Temblor: Managing a social media emergency
Mar 11, 2011 | Top Strategy Posts, Top Career Posts, The Harvard Business Review, Career
Yesterday morning I gave a talk on social media to a group of Canadian government employees. The talk was organized…
Today on HBR: A hard look at the hard bodies promised by Tim Ferriss
Mar 10, 2011 | Lifestyle, The Harvard Business Review
My latest post for Harvard Business Review takes a hard look at hard bodies: specifically, the hard bodies promised by Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4-Hour Body. In the post I quote three experts I asked for insight into the book's recommendations: Dr. Tieraona Low...
Predicting the future of the “personal brand”
Mar 10, 2011 | Career, Community
Yesterday Dan Schawbel published an interview with me on his Personal Branding blog. I have previously criticized the "personal branding" vogue both on this site and on my HBR blog, so I warned Dan he might be in for a rough ride! Much to his credit, he didn't shy...
The 8 stages of professional commitment: social media edition
Mar 9, 2011 | Career
I've recently crossed the commitment threshold. Not the romantic commitment threshold -- heck, that's easy, considering how little software is required (usually). I'm talking about the professional commitment I make to each project I take on, and to each partner,...
11 ways Twitter can change your life, as told by its users
Mar 8, 2011 | Community
Online conversations change lives. That belief drives most of my work and writing, which is why I'm always so interested to hear people reflect on the ways that social media affects their relationships, career or self-image. A few months ago I collected some of these...
Does the Internet eradicate barriers or perpetuate them?
Mar 7, 2011 | Community
The Guardian published an interesting story this weekend about the Internet's impact on disability. Aleks Krotoski writes that her masters' thesis in social psychology demonstrated two ways the web benefits people with physical disabilities: First, the web offered...