About iThnk.com

iThnk.com is a community of bloggers who write about: Business Insight, Co-creation, Free/Style and Social Media.

Business Insight

Sometimes philosophical, sometimes practical, always insightful

Co-creation

Co-creation is the way forward for business. Passive consumption is a thing of the past – your customers are now informed, connected, networked, and empowered on a scale that has never before been seen.

Community

iThnk.com’s mission is to to build an amazing community generated hub of content about business insight, free/style, co-creation and social media. This is a huge job and to make it happen we need your help.

Free/Style

Free/Style business is about more than $0.00, it’s about shedding business from traditional constraints and supercharging value add

Social Media

Social Media is fun…

9 Great Books For Getting Your Head Around The Social Web

Posted by Sam Schuurman On March - 8 - 2010Comments

Over the past 2 years I’ve been on a mission to try and soak up a whole load of info about how the world is changing and how the social web, free and co-creation fit into the future of business. The books below have not only given me a great understanding of both modern business and the social web they’ve also provided me with countless conversations pieces. I strongly recommend these books to anyone who’s looking to get into this space. 1. The World Is Flat Reading this book... more

How do we fix the dark side of social media?

Posted by Sam Schuurman On March - 1 - 2010Comments

We at iThnk could quite correctly be  blamed for being social-media cheerleaders (we do love this stuff), but at times things happen that mean you just can’t ignore the fact that social media has a dark side. Recently the socialweb has been the focal point for a whole load of dark and dispicable things, but most noticeably the desecration of the Facebook memorial page for the 8yr old murder victim Trinity Leigh Bates. Mourners set up at least two Facebook pages in tribute but reports say... more

Is $0.00 Really The Cost of Viral Marketing

Posted by Sam Schuurman On February - 26 - 2010Comments

Last week I wrote two posts about ‘Free’ & Viral Marketing , the first was merely questioning whether free was necessary for viral marketing to work, the second simply shed some insight that came from discussing the first post with a prominent Kiwi Blogger. This is the follow up: After all this discussion what was the consensus? Free is not 100% necessary for viral marketing…but it sure does help. ‘Free’ certainly lowers the barriers which prohibit viral activity,... more

Social Media Best Practice

Posted by Sam Schuurman On February - 22 - 2010Comments

This is a guest post that I wrote for Social Media NZ last week – enjoy  I’m not usually big on talking about best practice or making rules for social media. People who try to place rules and constrictions on things as dynamic as social media are usually proved wrong and made to look rather foolish over time….but when SocialMedia NZ asked me to write this piece I thought it’d be a great chance to mash together some of the best practice that I’ve seen with some of the insight... more

A ‘Free’ & Open Response

Posted by Sam Schuurman On February - 19 - 2010Comments

This morning I published a very quick post that simply asked the question ‘Would Viral Marketing Work Without Free‘. The idea of this post wasn’t to showcase my knowledge of free, it was simply to gain insight into what others thought. As often happens with these things the response to the post came through a less conventional means (email). Unfortunately, this great piece of feedback from another kiwi blogger was not available to you the public…so in order to free... more

Would Viral Marketing Work Without Free?

Posted by Sam Schuurman On February - 19 - 2010Comments

The above vid has been around for a while and it’s pretty popular (180,000 views).  It preaches a wicked message but I wonder…have they missed a crucial feature of viral marketing. The reason I wonder this is because free is the first principle of Dr. Ralph F. Wilson’s 6 Principles of Viral Marketing Gives away products or services Provides for effortless transfer to others Scales easily from small to very large Exploits common motivations and behaviors Utilizes existing... more