More Global Entrepreneurs Use Twitter to Connect
Published August 5, 2009 | 
Twitter is no longer the latest social networking fad that skeptics snickered at, while at the same time trying to figure out how to use it, and as it continues to evolve, Twitter is also continuing its phenomenal growth trends, by from the beginning letting its users determine the many different ways Twitter can be used to meet global social network and market connectivity needs.
The value of Twitter is measured differently from user to user, but recent numbers that put the total number using the platform on a regular basis approaching 50 million, and recently the advertising value of market exposure for businesses to users approached approximately $50 million.
Recent statistics that indicate approximately 55% of current Twitter users are located outside the U.S. market show the truly global nature of the micro-blogging platform, and the extent of the exposure and reach that is so important to global Entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes. 
Twitter along with Facebook, represent the tremendous growth in social media technology, and the acceptance and active participation in social networking by millions globally, has quickly become the focus of attention for Entrepreneurs, businesses, and communities throughout the U.S. and across the globe.
People are coming up with new uses for Twitter almost every hour of every day, from reporting and taking part in events, to business, to plants letting owners know when they are thirsty, expectant mothers knowing when their babies kick, and many other uses that is limited only by the creativity of the users in the market.
Read more About Twitter’s Growth: Why Twitter Continues to Grow
Building Customer Service and Brand Value through Social Media
Published August 4, 2009 | 
Some businesses “get it,” and are using social media tools and platforms like Twitter, Facebook, blogs and others to track customer experiences, emotions and growing positive or negative sentiment with a nearly real-time view of what’s taking place at any moment, as they have come to understand the platforms are an extension of the word-of-mouth market that has the potential of going instantly viral at any moment.
Businesses like Southwest Airlines, Dell, Comcast, most recently Best Buy and others have developed the correct approach to social media and how it can be used to be 
proactive in the customer service arena and turn what would normally be a negative customer experience into a positive one, and by doing so, increase the intrinsic value to the larger customer base and much larger market, which is so important to maintain positive business dynamics and organizational effectiveness needed to hold on to, and most importantly increase valuable market share.
It is a fact that social media has changed the market landscape forever, as it has boosted the potential for instant market awareness of any issues faced by the market and businesses, both negative and positive, as the market has become very focused on ever-increasing its ability to amplify the effect of as little as one message hitting the stream of conversations, like a rock dropped into a pond that sends out resulting ripples, 
with the right number of followers and friends in the social media networks, the affect of one message can be as waves produced by a massive bolder, rather than the small “pebble affect” in the time before social media networks and platforms.
The beauty of social media is the continuing adaptation of the markets to the technology, and the social media platforms adjusting according to market adaptations, like the well synchronized movements of dancers, and the resulting efficiencies of the market in getting any message out in scales never seen before. 
The Entrepreneurs and their businesses regardless of size, that learn how to innovatively design and shape the most effective strategies for social media in order to take part in the market conversation, and proactively gather and convert the valuable customer relationships needed for success in today’s global economic environment, will insure and strengthen their position in the market and many will destined to become the market leaders in the global economy.
For More Good Reading Check Out: A Tweet in Time
Plan for How to Deal with Social Network Overload
Published July 30, 2009 | 
Team Altman Interesting News:
If you are like many of the at least 200 million people globally that belong to multiple social networks and platforms, you have reached a point at some time, that you felt the emotion of being pulled in so many different directions at the same time, and the feeling like you just don’t have enough time in the day to be effective on any of the networks you are part of, and each of us in our own way has to come up with a strategy that’s part of a plan to somehow gain control of our ever growing social network worlds that make up the social media universe, and the overextended and fractured emotions that result from having too many different dialogues at one time.
The Rest of the Story: Social Networking Overload
Number of Social Network Users has Doubled in Past 2 Years
Published July 28, 2009 | 
Team Altman Interesting News:
It may not come as a surprise to anyone that uses the Internet on a more and more regular basis for daily tasks like reading the latest news, checking the TV listings, or catching up on their favorite show they missed the latest episode of, but what might surprise even the savviest veteran of the Internet evolution is the rate at which social networks and social media platforms have grown and continue to grow at ever faster rates, for example Facebook users increased 50 Million in the past three months from 200 to 250 Million, and recent statistics show 1/3 of the adult population of the U.S., or over 55 Million adult users visit social networks regularly, and at least monthly.
The Rest of the Story: http://mashable.com/2009/07/28/social-networking-users-us/
Stable Systems in Business and Production Part 1
Published July 14, 2009 | What is stability in any system?
Would you agree that every system that we use has a slight variation? Does this mean that any system is perfect or good enough. To capture a clear picture of a perfect system we need a system that is accurate and considered to have truth. We must first look at the funnel and how this applies all forms of business.
Our experiment will include a blank piece of paper, a funnel held at X-distance, a funnel opening of Y-diameter, and a ball of Z-size. Lets say that X= 6 inches, Y= .25, and Z=.15. Now what we want to do is test the stability of the experiment. What we will do is drop the ball into the funnel and then mark where the ball comes to rest. The first ball enters the funnel, hits the paper, and comes to a rest at 1.5-inches from the center. We continue to repeat the test and the ball comes to rest at a range of .5 inch to a full 7-inches. What we get after a hundred trials is a concentrated dot that has a diameter of approximately 7-inches.
Lets try to improve the system by moving the funnel to see if we can better place the ball near the center. Can you blame us for trying?
Lets say that after the first trial we simply move the funnel 1.5-inches to the exact spot the ball came to a rest. We run the trial again and the ball rolls another 2 inches in the same direction. Again we repeat the experiment by moving the funnel over the next resting spot. By trying to predict the system and constantly adjusting we have spread the diameter of the resting place. Our exactness decreases and our system no longer is functioning properly.
Statistically speaking we have a stable system, with no objective influences, and no tampering other than simply adjusting the system. How is this funnel related to business. Simple. All businesses from manufacturing to sales use a set of funnels to produce an output of variation.
What systems due you see around you that act like this?
Think about a gun. A bullet travels through the air and may not hit the exact target due to variation in the shape of the bullets made, the amount of gun powder, or the wind. We would logically try to move the gun to improve the accuracy. This may be hard to swallow, but we will only make the accuracy worse if the system is stable.
If you have never 
heard of this and are seeing this for the first time, it must be a bit of a shock to realize that some of our best efforts are actually making things worse. Take a moment to think back. Maybe to some of your first jobs. Everything runs smoothly until management tries to adjust for “big problems” by over adjusting and making the problem continue. What this brings up is Tampering. There is a big difference from adjusting for improvement, adjusting for no improvement, and tampering. Tampering is the motion of worsening, even ruining, a system.
The secret is small adjustments to business systems. The one thing to remember is that all systems have variation — some may be small and some maybe be large — all systems have variation.
Can you remember a time the boss came in and started yelling about how things were messed up, but everything from what you could tell was due to variation and chance, and really wasn’t that big of a deal? Maybe they keep changing the incentive program. Perhaps no adjustments are made at work until they are large.