99% of companies, certainly in the UK, are completely unaware what is being said about them on the web, what conversations are happening about their competitors and their market sector and they are failing to capture the true power of the social web

I think its a bit unfair to make the comparison between a US and a UK tech business. All of the major tech companies are US based, be it web, mobile or software. The eco system in the US is so more sophisticated and mature than it is in Europe and as such, the mind set is totally different.

It continues to surprise me how entrepreneurs reach the valuations on their seed start up’s.

The last couple of years has seen the emergence of “local”. For years the local directory space has been dominated by Thomsons & Yellow Pages, both of which have built exceptionally strong brands and customer loyalty over many years- especially Yellow Pages with their iconic brand.
However both have failed to recreate their success online, notably Thomsons who have failed to keep pace with Yell and transition their revenues from print to online. Why is this?

And this is where the US is country miles, even years ahead of the UK.
I really struggle with VC’s that purport to invest in start up’s. They don’t.

Some predicted it would happen. Most (including me) doubted it ever would. Twitter has made huge strides over the last 12 months, going from an application used by a smallish community of “social media folk” to a rapidly mainstream site

Its been announced that the European version of the Web 2.0 Expo, an extension of the hugely successful web conference held in San Francisco, has been cancelled.
O’Reilly Media, organisers of both events, commented on their blog “Due to the uncertain economic situation of many companies, our American colleagues, the organizer O’Reilly Media, Inc. and Techweb, [...]

I’m not sure quite what to make of this. Is it a smart PR stunt or someone just trying to be “clever” and in fact missing a huge PR opportunity?
It links to nothing (right now) and has no brand associated with it but I bet intrigue has driven people en-mass to the URL and generated [...]

It still surprises me how many business owners are not aware of the conversations going on about them across the web. Or by not monitoring stories about their business/industry what valuable (and free) PR opportunities they are missing.
The sheer scale of the web today and the millions of blogs, forums and review sites on the [...]

For a start up or SME, identifying a cost effective means of generating good PR is difficult.
The common problem many businesses, large and small, have is making their PR work for them IE: getting results.
Like most entrepreneurs, I have made more mistakes with PR than any other facet of running a business. I’ve also worked [...]