[Originally posted on CNBC.com.] With the Facebook IPO looming and everybody watching, I’m wondering if the social network to end all social networks is going to live up to the hype. (Could anything live up to all this hype?) With big advertisers not convinced that Facebook is a good platform to propel brands forward and [...]

[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] In this election year, I’ve been on fear watch. Folks are fearful of everything from 2012 theories to GMOs to student loans taking over as the No. 1 source of pain for college grads everywhere. A few years ago, I talked at length about the cult of anger our [...]

As a PR professional, I know how crucial creativity is to success in business today. As a socially networked person (is there anybody out there who isn’t?), I’ve watched as network friends draw something, write something or video something. As a trendspotter, I’ve read at length Richard Florida’s thoughts on the importance of the creative [...]

  [Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] I remember being blown away by “An American Family,” what was a compelling and unorthodox documentary miniseries when it was made back in 1973, which showed the world that the “typical” American family was anything but. Much time has passed since the Louds captivated our psyches (HBO recently [...]

[Originally posted on CNBC.com.] In my head (never mind the wrinkles on my forehead), it seems like only yesterday that I was an eager, bright overachiever, dressed in a blur of designer labels—the Lower East Side and Loehmann’s still spelled fashion bargains—and thrift-store finds, lapping up insights and tips from the likes of my former [...]

[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] Normally when I speak or write, it’s to comment on a new trend or the implications of breaking news—the sort of stuff that’s out there in the public spaces of the media. So at first, I thought speaking about social media at the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Public [...]