If you haven’t read or seen anything by these guys, definitely worth checking out.

Business Tips via Mixergy, home of the ambitious upstart!

But, have I actually put my excitement to the test?  The answer is no.  I work for a large company and only have built a few crude ideas on content management systems like wordpress (polycareers.com).  I’m definitely no coder, but I fell that I am, to some extent, proficient in business and analytical skills.

Taking a step back, if you take a look at my rss reader and book shelf, you’ll find links like Hacker News, 37 Signals Blog, PMarca blog, Guy Kawasaki’s book Reality Check, Gary Vaynaerchuk’s Crush It, and 37 Signal’s own Jason Fried & David Heinmeier Hansson new book ReWork.  I have even tried to really hunker down and learn ruby on rails with the 3rd edition of Agile Web Development Rails book with only some high level understanding.

Although I love to sit down and problem solve some code and thrive on the aha moments, I feel like I’m usually finding myself discouraged and reasoning with myself that I should just forget it all and be thankful for my current job and enjoy life as much as I can as a 24 year old.

Am I wasting time and energy?  Sometimes I think so, others I think not.  Any of you out there feeling the same?

As social media is really beginning to be openly adopted as a viable tool for business here within Cisco, we are seeing a jump in conversations and collaboration among our peers and colleagues on best practices and techniques.  Only in  the last few months a group of us at Cisco have come together to form social media round table discussions to keep conversations open and ideas flowing.

As a new hire as Cisco, it is encouraging to see a myriad of different folks around the company being transparent and open to new and different ideas, even if they are unconventional.  That’s not to say that everyone agrees on everything, but there is that push to always be thinking outside of the box.

When great ideas are shared, everyone is more than willing to walk those that are interested through the process.

It is more discussions and round tables like these that will continue to push the envelope.  My only hope is that we see more of these in plenty of different technology areas within the company.

1. Continuing growth of twitter usage

2. Continuing growth of LinkedIn

3. Transpiring those to actual meet-ups (conferences, socials, etc)

4. Mobile business cards ( quick and easy exchange of contact information)

I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts talking about business and the economy and it seems most of them are all about reacting.  A certain amount may be necessary in some instances, but in my opinion now is the time to put full efforts into social media.  It is this grass roots type of movement, that if you can get it going, can really help a business by utilizing word of mouth.  A recent post of Jermiah Owyang’s shows all of the recent layoffs in the social media industry.  This scares me to think that businesses are quickly going to extreme measures.  What do you guys think?  Am I totally off?

My girlfriend has a blog called Taxable Interest where she writes about tax, the profession, and the grad program she is currently enrolled in.  Her recent post talks about an interesting book she has been reading Ahead of the Curve, by Philip Delves Broughton.  Sadly to say she has ceased to continue writing due to her busy schedule.  This post got a comment from Philip himself.

It just goes to show how people or companies can use social media tools such as blogsearch.google.com to find branding key terms and connect with others no matter who they may be.

The first commercial was just Jerry and Bill at a cheap shoe store similar to Payless where they argue about what shoe is better.  The next episode has the two living with a family in order to see what life is like outside of their own.

In the end they are selling Microsoft Vista, but I think it is great to do something so different.  It’s getting guys like me to blog and talk about it all over the internet which is social media at it’s core.  I think the true point they are trying to make is that they are stepping out and getting in touch with the average person.  I hope there will be more to come.