Investing for the Common Man

Some of the best ideas in investing are readily available from those who have profited the most by it. Warren Buffett, Prem Watsa of Fairfax Financial, and Bill Gross of Pimco are among those who make their investing philosophies available to the public, and they are worth following if you are an active investor.

Buffett in particular has a gift for making the complexities of investing remarkably simple. A disciple of the legendary Benjamin Graham and his value-based investment methodology, Buffett has one particular tenet that serves the average investor well, namely: "Most people should not try to time the market, but instead invest in the market over time with planned and consistent purchases of low cost index funds. If you really want to do it the other way (buy low and sell high) and you know a thing or two about business, be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. The extent of your investing success will depend to a large measure on your ability to profit from the manic-depressive follies of Mr. Market and his emotions on any given day".

Mr. Market, of course, refers to a mythical character embodied in the market prices quoted daily. Mr. Market has incurable emotional problems, and is at times euphoric quoting you high prices because today he sees only the favorable factors affecting business. At other times he is depressed and wants to give you his business at at a low price since he sees nothing but trouble ahead.

Buffett's wisdom and the "Mr. Market" analogy is elegant in it's simplicity and easy to implement. Doing so reduces the risk of over-investing when Mr. Market is happy, and under-investing when Mr. Market is sad. Planned and consistent periodic purchases of index funds reduce the significant risk of over-investing in individual securities when they are over-priced, and saving your large purchases of individual quality stocks that you understand for periods where they have declined for no good reason reduces market timing risk. This strategy allows you to profit from market circumstances rather then being a victim of them.

Social Media Marketing- What's in it for Medium Sized Companies

Social Media marketing is ideal for marketers with limited budgets but big aspirations. Using contemporary digital social media networks, marketers can occupy an maximum amount of "screen real estate" at a small cost.

Some of the marketing achievements to be had from these efforts include: thought leadership, lead generation, branding, and reputation management.

Common digital forums include: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, and MySpace. For search engine rankings, ideally these are "fed" by a blog.

Marketers need to decide their objectives in advance to launching a thoughtful Social Marketing Strategy. Useful readings on the subject include "Radically Transparent" by Andy Beal, "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David M. Scott, and "Groundswell" by Charlene Li.