Mike D. Merrill Blog

Thoughts on Startup Weekend Dallas and Bookedd Wins

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:52:59 +0000

The weekend before Thanksgiving I participated in my first Startup Weekend here in Dallas and wanted to share a few thoughts about the experience. It was the 5th event to date in Dallas and I’m kicking myself for not making the commitment to get engaged earlier. I was impressed with how many solid ideas folks pitched [...]

Zaarly First Experience

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:19:47 +0000

Last week Zaarly reported stellar news raising $14 millon in funding and that Meg Whitman has joined their board. Now I was familiar with Zaarly as I’ve followed this company since following the Startup Weekend movement. So I was curious to figure out a way to use the application but couldn’t figure out what to ask [...]

How To: LinkedIn Video Series

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:22:18 +0000

I had the pleasure of joining WebBeat.TV recently to talk with Pelpina Trip about LinkedIn in a three part video series. I’ve long felt that LinkedIn is misunderstood as a valuable tool for networking, recruiting, prospecting and job search. My goal was to discuss some details of LinkedIn in hopes of getting more folks to take [...]

@GameStop Overreacts to Employee Planking By Firing Them

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:45:23 +0000

GameStop has recently received quite a bit of press for firing employee John Mazzocchi for planking in a GameStop retail store and posting photos and comments on Twitter. While I don’t doubt they have the authority to terminate employees for violating their existing social media policy, the question is should they have. For a gaming company [...]

Fortune Magazine Profile – Reinventing Your Career

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:21:45 +0000

The last few weeks have been purely humbling. Last week I was thrilled to participate in an interview on NBC here in DFW. This week, the July 4th edition of Fortune magazine features an interview providing a brief glimpse into my transition from IT sales and marketing to social media and online marketing. I’ve been [...]

Social Media and Cheating Interview on NBC

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:30:03 +0000

There is no hiding the fact that I am passionate about the power of social media to transform how businesses and consumers communicate. That’s why I was pretty excited Friday night to participate in NBC 5′s Nightly News Nonstop Nightly show at 6:30pm with Jane McGarry. It was great to see “how the sausage gets made” inside [...]

Mobile Opportunities for Entrepreneurs – Smarter Mobile Ecosystem

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 01:58:33 +0000

One of the sessions I was looking forward to attending at SXSW Interactive was on Mobile Opportunities for Entrepreneurs in 2011 with Raj Singh as part of the Future15 track. Raj Singh is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Stanford Research Institute and a long-time entrepreneur with eleven years experience in mobile. Raj spoke about several themes relative [...]

Movember and My First Moustache

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:49:58 +0000

Did you know that more than 32,000 men will die as a direct result of prostate cancer in 2010? Would you also believe I have never grown a moustache? As a result of these two facts and that my grandfather-in-law survived prostate cancer, I am choosing to participate in Movember for the first time. Although [...]

Coca-Cola Checks In with Facebook via RFID

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:00:28 +0000

It’s been exactly 100 days since I’ve blogged as I’ve been tied up with a new marketing role at ReachLocal. After seeing this video I had to share and applaud Publicis E-dologic for a pain-free way to integrate social sharing with Facebook. Coca Cola – The Real Life Like – (2010) Israel Talk about connecting [...]

Paciugo Launches 4 New Gelato Flavors including one with Bacon

Mike D. Merrill (@mikedmerrill) — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:43:16 +0000

Paciugo is launching 4 new flavors in May including one with Bacon. I was excited to interview the co-founder of the local Dallas business with 43 locations and a talkable brand.