Neal Schaffer's Page

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City and/or State, and Country: California, USA

Techno-Comfort Level (1=Techno-Phobe; 10=Techno-Geek): 7

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About Me Brief Biography: Neal Schaffer is a Senior Analyst covering Social Media. Neal has a background as a sales and business development executive helping companies launch sales organizations and maximize sales execution in Asia. His expertise includes consumer electronics, Internet software, telecommunications, embedded software solutions and semiconductors. His past roles include Director of Sales, Asia Pacific East, for Datapath and Regional Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales for Espial. Coming back to his native United States after spending most of his career in Asia, Neal has shifted his focus from Japanese consumer electronics devices to understanding the continuing explosion of social media in the US. His unique outsider perspective combined with a learn-by-experience work ethic has helped Neal create thorough and insightful analysis that has won a wide following to his blogging and tweets on the subject. He is currently writing his first book on social media focusing on LinkedIn. A graduate of Amherst College, Neal has a BA in Asian Studies and is trilingual in English, Chinese and Japanese.

Neal Schaffer's Blog

Your LinkedIn Profile - Does Your Employer Own It or Do You?

The following story of LinkedIn Profile ownership is a true one, and as with my other blog posts, I am hoping to get your feedback as to what the “right” answer to this question should be.

Imagine that you began a job as a recruiter. Part of your job is, obviously, building out a network. After being hired you learn about LinkedIn and sign up using your personal name. You start inviting your network as well as new contacts to connect with you on LinkedIn. In order to… Continue

Posted on May 27, 2009 at 3:30pm

Twitter Adds Some Serious Functionality

If you are on Twitter, you may have noticed that today your screen looked different than it did yesterday. As is the norm these days with Web 2.0 sites, out of nowhere the user interface has been changed, and suddenly the screen that you have looked at daily has changed. Facebook and LinkedIn have had issues dealing with an angry demographic who opposed their recent changes, but I don't think that this will happen with Twitter. Why? Because Twitter added enough functionality… Continue

Posted on May 1, 2009 at 1:22am

How to Monetize Social Media

So the buzz continues around social media, and the membership numbers of social networking sites continues to soar. According to Alexa.com statistics, Facebook is now the 4th most visited site in the world, followed by MySpace at 9th, Twitter at 55th, and LinkedIn at 100th. These are impressive numbers.

What is more impressive is that social networks become stickier and stickier as time progresses, and thus the amount of time spent on these… Continue

Posted on April 9, 2009 at 2:00pm

Confused by Twitter? Don't Be!

I recently wrote about LinkedIn and why you absolutely have to be on it if you are a professional. Although I am passionate about LinkedIn to the point where I am updating my blog (http://linkedinquestions.wordpress.com) daily and in the process of writing a book on the subject, I have found a new friend recently in Twitter.

"Twitter?" you ask, "I don't get it." Yes, I didn't get it either. And I don't pretend to fully get it now. But, to put it simply, if LinkedIn is about finding… Continue

Posted on March 12, 2009 at 5:45pm

Tivo? DVR? A review of Cox Communications (Cable) DVR Service for Dummies

If you are reading this article because you are intrigued by the title, you are probably interested in recording TV shows but may be a little perplexed by the complexity of doing so. Or you may be unhappy with your own TV service or piece of recording equipment. As someone who used to sell Electronic Program Guide (EPG) middleware and Digital Video Recorder (DVR) applications to telephone companies for IPTV services, I can tell you that my Cox DVR Set-Top Box (STB) {manufactured by Motorola, by… Continue

Posted on February 3, 2009 at 8:11pm — 5 Comments