People unfamiliar with the digital world often baulk at the idea of giving bits and bytes away for free. They see it in the same way as giving real world stuff away. Big difference though. Most digital assets have no cost when given away.

What they do give you is trust, exposure and a try before you buy experience for the many customers who may not have a clue who you are before hand and certainly wouldn't spend money on your product. Giving them a free taster though allows you to build up that trust. If they like it they may buy. If they don't, then you have lost nothing.

Another great article by Seth Godin about 
Free samples
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/05/free-samples.html

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Another great article from Seth Godin. I often have a similar discussion with clients. We need to be on Facebook, We need a twitter strategy, We should be on tumblr etc and replace those names with whatever trend is out this week.

What they should be saying is we need a digital strategy to help us interactive with our customers and prospects.

The digital strategy will then help determine where our customers and prospects (people) are in the digital landscape so you can work out how best to interact with them.

How many times have you seen your competitor drop the price or give stuff away for free when you know there is no need to? They simply haven't got the creativity to maintain its value.

Think about it. If the service or solution you are selling was easy to do and everyone was doing it, then yes, maybe it is a simple commodity and you have to slash prices ( probably after slashing costs and perhaps quality too but thats a different story). But if the solution / product is high quality or no one else is doing it, then it will have value. Stop and think about how to maintain that value, before you destroy it.

And dirty cola at that. I don't think it is. I'm sure I would've noticed. We used to have a coal fire at home and you have to empty the ash and I've not had to do that with my phone yet.

On a serious note, it is interesting to see some companies like Google, spending an awful lot more time and money pushing cleaner energy and other of the larger companies not seeing this as much as a priority. Is it purely financial? Or just that the leaders are not thinking that way?

Would you be more likely to buy an Apple device if they were greener and had an environmentally friendly sticker on the box?

Apple defends green credentials of cloud computing services
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/17/apple-cloud-computing-coal-greenpeace?CMP=twt_fd

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What a fantastic idea. More companies should do this and see how their productivity rises.

Netflix's Unlimited Employee Vacation Policy; Why It Works
http://mashable.com/2012/04/13/netflix-unlimited-vacation/

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Another great article by Seth Godin
Is everyone entitled to their opinion?
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/04/is-everyone-entitled-to-their-opinion.html

The answer – a resounding "no". Unfortunately what it doesn't say is how to say no nicely without offending people. Because the people who often have the loudest voice when giving their opinion are the most passionate and get the most upset, even when they have no weight behind their opinion as Seth suggests.

Maybe I'll get some cards printed with this blog post address and give them out……

Whether it was to stop Google buying it or simply to kickstart it's mobile user base, the purchase of Instagram for $1 billion is an interesting development in the online world. This article from the Guardian gives a great overview of the process and some thoughts on the reasons beyond the acquisition. Great article, except perhaps for the last comment: