Welcome to the August 10th edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we report on stories that get our marketing, social media and workaholic brainwaves going. What’s on this week’s docket of must reads? Well, small business owners can be confusing, cubicles suck, an office should be like a dinner party and the Twitter world rallies to help clean up jolly old London. So grab that morning coffee and read on!
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64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media is Unnecessary [Study]
Apparently an overwhelming majority of small business owners in the U.S. don’t think social media is vital to their marketing. According to a study by small business insurance provider Hiscox, many SMB owners say they don’t see the value in being active on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Oddly though, the same group of business owners polled said they relied heavily on word of mouth marketing. Um, what’s this? What’s the word we’re looking for here? Oh yeah, conundrum. Read the fully confusing stats here.
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The Rise of the Mobile Workforce [Infographic]
It’s infographic time! And who doesn’t love infographics? Today’s design covers the rise of the mobile workforce. Team Dukky is all too aware (and we’re sure you are too) that the days of the 9 to 5 job is over and working from a mobile device is taking a greater hold. Who needs a cubicle when you have an iPad and a smartphone, am I right? Check out the stats compiled by Cisco here.

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The Joy of Dirty Dishes (and Passion People)
I don’t know about you, but sometimes a blog post comes along and makes you take a moment to lean back in your chair and say “yes”. That’s what I did when I read this particularly refreshing post by Amy Taylor on the Brains on Fire blog. In it, she compares a dinner party to the workplace and asks us all to take a moment and remember that real life happens offline. Would you attend a dinner party thrown by your company? Something to ponder.

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London Riots: Social Media Mobilizes Riot Clean-up
We got to hand it to the good people of London. They’ve dealt with a fair amount of terror and craziness the last few days. But as we’ve continued to see in the wake of social revolutions in the Middle East, natural disasters the world over and now on the streets of London, people are using social media for good. Using Twitter to organize their movements, the Britons came out in droves with brooms, bags, gloves and smiles to show the shop keepers and home owners that were looted that the city has not forgotten them. So let’s hear it for the socially minded, digitally connected good people of old London town. Say it with me – hip, hip, hooray! Read some of the inspiring tweets here.
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We are amazed at the ever growing number of ways people are harnessing the power of social media for good. Take for example the recent case of a South African woman who was contemplating committing suicide. When the distressed woman sent out a rather grim post her followers, recognizing a dire call for help, started tweeting kind messages of encouragement and consolation to her. Then they mobilized. Coordinating their efforts with hastags #FindGina and #SaveGina they managed to locate the woman and ensure she was in the safe arms of her family. Now if that’s not a powerful testament to the collaborative and community engagement capabilities of social media we don’t know what is. See the full article on Mashable
In today’s market everyone is looking for ways to reach more and more people. We want MORE. More followers. More likes. More RTs. More +1s. The list goes on and on. But what about your core team of supporters? What about the people who really love you? Is your company doing enough to thank them and keep these brand evangelists engaged? In her latest post for the
We at Team Dukky are pretty fond of creative tech and marketing people. They inspire us. They help get our brainstorming mojo on. So, like any good fans, we stalk them. MailChimp is often the target of said stalking. What can we say? They do it right, all the time. From putting out fun and engaging info on their amazing services to the fun items they commission we love all that they do. Case in point, their latest company sponsored venture – a rock opera. You read that right. Get the back story and download a free track from the project
You feel it. We feel it. It’s creeping in. Sure Google+ is cool but a lot of social media users are bemoaning the ever increasing number of networks we’re expected to be active on. Is there no end in sight? Will they ever all be linked together? The budding movement of social media overload brings with it one good thing – sharing. Sharing – be it B2B, B2C or C2C – is at an all time high. This looming sharepocalypse means we’re entering a new era of social network chaos, and this, in turn, is going to create new needs and opportunities for startups. Read on 



















Social media is about ______. We’re sure you can think of a wide range of descriptors to fill that blank, but according to 
Unless you see yourself as the next Monét, chances are the idea of your life being turned into a museum exhibit hasn’t even crossed your mind. But now, thanks to Intel, you don’t have to be a famous [dead] painter to get a museum in your honor! The 















