And I’ll admit it, too – if a client chose to share proposals received from our competitors, I would feel a slight frisson of guilt, but I would get over it (as long as doing so would not break any existing agreement).

So the next time Mr. CMO you are calculating the ROI of social media, include the thousands of dollars of advice in these and similar pages. In fact, you might even decide to participate by asking a few specific questions and then all this networking will really be worth it.

Just make sure you don’t give your business to the lowest bidder, execution of ideas has its price.

I got an email the other day intended to be an “atta boy,” from someone inside a rather large PR firm. Turns out a few of my blog posts are now training material for parts of the new PR.

Briefly – very – I was steamed, thinking about how I could’ve turned a few dollars for training that information directly.

In the end? I’m custom, I’m me, and I’m going to give away everything because where I really shine is in what I do NEXT.

So rock on, you bad motha. I’m glad you’re out there competing. (By the way, I might have some trad/hybrid business to throw your way soon, so don’t be a stranger). : )

Aside from that – thanks for the nod, and I think that Isaac Newton put it best, noting that if he had seen further, it was because he had the luck to “stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Just today, by following a competitor CEO on Twitter, I discovered a technique he was using on the side to generate business to his main company. It’s a great idea and gave me some ideas, but I would never have come across it without keeping this “enemy” a little closer than my friends.