Jon DiPietro

"True. The limits are the key, even with prospective clients. I'm dealing with someone right now who is pushing those limits." - Jon DiPietro

"There is a big difference between helping prospective clients and helping the competition. The former are deserving of help and will generate a positive ROI in the long run. The latter are hangers-on who need to do the work themselves and to whom you owe nothing. Coca-Cola may from time to time decide to donate product to local schools or sporting events for good will, promotional purposes and corporate social responsibility. But it won't - and shouldn't be expected to - share its recipe with Pepsi in the name of playing nice together and leveling the playing field." - Jon DiPietro

"Degree requirements are not about finding the best qualified candidates. You alluded to that when you said, "But realistically speaking, it’s going to be hard to replace college applications with investor pitches." Bingo! Putting a college degree requirement is frequently a lazy, cover-your-butt shortcut for the person creating the job description. My own career is a perfect example. My first job (many years ago) required a B.S.E.E. but I spent 100% of my time programming computers. The only computer programming class I had ever taken was Fortran, which was not at all applicable. I would have been much better prepared by spending a year or two studying math, physics, chemistry, design and some liberal arts classes. Incidentally, that sounds harsher than I mean it to be. I don't blame the people writing the job descriptions: I'd do the same. It's kind of like the old adage, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." It's the company's responsibility to rewrite the rules and establish a..." - Jon DiPietro

"I think they wil need to create a new subsystem that has more of a buyers' intent at its heart. If I knew what that was, I'd move my butt to Silicon Valley and pitch my idea. Maybe it's a product review/recommendation/search platform. Maybe it's an entire ecommerce ecosystem (Facebook Credits, anyone?). Dunno." - Jon DiPietro

"Karen - That's like saying, "When I can see a direct correlation between impressions and additional cash in the bottom line I will say Google Ads work." Just because likes aren't translating to the bottom line doesn't mean it's the platform's fault. Just like lousy click-through rates on Google ads aren't the platform's fault. But you are correct in saying there is no sustainable business model in evidence. It will require a combination of maturation by the marketing industry and innovation by Facebook." - Jon DiPietro

"I know they're rumored to have been testing that, but I don't see it happening. I don't believe they could ever mess with the fundamental member ecosystem that way. I'm actually shocked that they even tested it. Facebook advertising has two problems. The first isn't their fault: It's that most businesses are incredibly, pathetically, infuriatingly stupid. They don't understand the difference between outbound advertising and social advertising. It's like a lousy golfer buying new clubs every year thinking it will improve their game. It's not the clubs, you just suck. The second problem is buying intent. When people do a Google search for a product they generally are looking for customer support or to purchase. When people use Facebook, there's very little intent to buy. That's what they need to figure out." - Jon DiPietro