Martin Lindeskog

I have come to understand that the various social media tools can be used in both social and business cases. But I can’t help but wonder when some of the social tools will generate money?

If you are not very familiar with social media, I recommend that you stop right now, and have a look at Common Craft’s instructional videos which deal with social media and social networks.

It seems as if businesses are finding ways to use social media (usually without paying anything). One high-profile example of a business which has taken up social media is Zappos. This is an extract from Sarah Milstein’s article in the New York Times, How Twitter can help at Work, where she points to one way to use Twitter: read more

I will try to give at least five reasons why America is a great place to run a business, and I want to start by giving an historical background. It is appropriate to take history as the first reason because you in America have recently celebrated Thanksgiving. But the question is whether you know how the celebration arose?

First time was on 4 December, 1619, in Berkeley Plantation, Charles City in the vicinity of Jamestown, Colony of Virginia. I would suggest that the founding of America was a business venture which was started by a group of entrepreneurs from London, the Virginia Company of London.

Here is an excerpt from The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities site:

“In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish a satellite English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. By December, 104 settlers sailed from London instructed to settle Virginia, find gold and a water route to the Orient.”

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I agree with John Jantsch’s statement “The current state of economic affairs cries out for leaders.” (Lead for Selfish Reasons, October 27, 2008.)

How could a political leader take charge and walk on the correct path if the country looks like it is divided into separate parts instead of being integrated into a whole map with independent states that are united? I think you could see that division in an historical perspective and look back what happened eight years ago. Here is an eloquent example by Robert Tracinski from his article, The Two Americas: read more

One way to get in a better mood in these depressing times with mudslinging election campaigns and a downturn spiral of the economy, is to search for investing opportunities.

If you take a contrarian view and speculate against the more traditional and conservative investing method, you have a chance to turn the situation into an opportunity instead of a threat.

My advice is not to go against the mainstream opinion per se — it is more to start to think outside the box and come up with an alternative strategy that is not commonly accepted by the public. If you base your ideas on real values and hard assets, you could use a combination of fundamental data and technical analysis and come up with a solid game plan. read more

First of all, I want to declare for the record that I am an American in spirit (although living in Sweden) and my long-range goal is to return to the land of opportunity — the United States of America.

I want to spend time in a country with happy citizens and productive companies. After I read issue number 8590 of The Economist, I got a creepy feeling that not everything is okay in America at the moment, and the Americans are not a bunch of happy campers.

Here are some examples from the article, Unhappy America, describing the gloomy mood in America:

• Eight out of of 10 Americans think their country is heading in the wrong direction.
• Globalisation is under fire: Free trade is less popular in the United States than in any other developed country, and a nation built on immigrants is building a fence to keep them out.
• Politicians seeking a scapegoat for America’s self-made problems too often point the finger at the growing power of once-poor countries, accusing them of stealing American jobs and objecting when they try to buy American companies.

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