Author Archives: markkolier

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About markkolier

Futurist, entrepreneur, left lane driver, baseball lover

Where are the tour guides and advocates for the Travel Agency business?

Posted on March 21, 2011 by markkolier

Maybe they are on vacation. After travel agencies and travel agents themselves are vanishing one by one and have been for a long time. Like most people I had thought of this many times before although I don’t frequently arrange … Continue reading →

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Tracking people down using social media

Posted on March 18, 2011 by markkolier

Last week I posted that I thought Facebook was heading toward being the new telephone. Social media is now the ‘party line’ platform where people are congregating both personally and professionally. In the last few weeks I have received many … Continue reading →

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The golden days of group couponing are almost over

Posted on March 16, 2011 by markkolier

Groupon http://www.groupon.com and Living Social http://www.livingsocial.com are red hot as the two of the most successful online social couponing sites with IPO’s in the offing for both companies. I’ve been getting the daily emails from both sites for quite some … Continue reading →

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March Madness equals a drain on worker productivity – or does it?

Posted on March 14, 2011 by markkolier

The NCAA basketball tournament begins this Thursday (or Tuesday/Wednesday if you count the new 2 games pre-tournament tournament to get from 68 teams to 64 teams). I always enjoy the NCAA tournament and in particular the Thursday and Friday games … Continue reading →

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To get new ideas and experiences think about getting out of your comfort zone

Posted on March 11, 2011 by markkolier

While I am hardly qualified to be a psychologist, I do constantly observe behavior in people and things in and around my life. One thing I have observed (and this is no revelation) is that people consistently fall into routines … Continue reading →

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Is Charlie Sheen a marketing genius?

Posted on March 9, 2011 by markkolier

With a dizzying total of more than 2,200,000Twitter followers in a little over a week Charlie (aka Tiger Blood) Sheen has reset the bar for attracting attention and gaining social media status. Now terming himself “Born small…Winning…Now Huge…Bring It!…unemployed winner…”, … Continue reading →

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Is Facebook the new telephone?

Posted on March 7, 2011 by markkolier

Since I am of a certain age (I was born when Ike was President of the U.S.), I have friends that refuse to engage on Facebook. While that is of course their right I cannot understand or even accept their … Continue reading →

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Why don’t the best and brightest want to teach?

Posted on March 4, 2011 by markkolier

Our daughter is a high school senior and interested in becoming an elementary education major (a teacher) when she begins college this fall. When she told my wife and me this nearly a year ago, we were very happy and … Continue reading →

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Stock brokerage cold call prospecting – how could it still work?

Posted on March 2, 2011 by markkolier

I am sitting at my desk and the phone rings. For some reason our company does not have caller ID. On the other end of the phone is a young (or so I assume) man (in fact I cannot recall … Continue reading →

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Oscar advertising doesn’t resonate like Super Bowl advertising

Posted on February 28, 2011 by markkolier

Three weeks ago (doesn’t it somehow seem longer?) the Super Bowl attracted a record amount of television viewers (and oddly the largest game crowd in Super Bowl history as well). As reported in Ad Age last week the cost for … Continue reading →

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