Digital Threads: The Small Business and Entrepreneur Playbook for Digital-First Marketing is a must-read for any entrepreneur or small business owner looking to scale their brand and achieve lasting success in today’s digital-first world. As the digital landscape continues to evolve at lightning speed, the key to survival and growth lies in mastering digital marketing strategies that are both cost-effective and powerful. But with so many platforms, tools, and trends, knowing where to begin—or how to improve your existing approach—can feel overwhelming. That’s where Digital Threads comes in. Bestselling author, Fractional CMO, keynote speaker, and university educator Neal Schaffer draws on over a decade of experience in digital marketing to deliver an accessible, practical guide packed with strategies tailored to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Whether you’re launching a new venture or looking to grow an existing one, this book offers a clear path to building a robust digital presence and driving real, measurable growth. With Digital Threads, you will discover how to: Leverage Big-Brand Strategies on a Small-Business Budget: Neal demystifies the marketing tactics used by large brands and adapts them to the scale and budget of smaller businesses. From optimizing your online presence to using the same frameworks that industry leaders rely on, you’ll learn how to compete effectively without overspending. Maximize Your Content's Impact: In today’s fast-paced world, content is everything. Neal teaches you how to repurpose your content to make it work harder for you. Whether it’s blogs, social media posts, or videos, you’ll learn to distribute your content across multiple platforms in ways that boost visibility and engagement. Master Social Media Marketing: Social media isn’t just for big brands. Learn how to develop platform-specific strategies that work on a small budget. Neal shares his insider tips on creating engaging content, growing your audience, and turning followers into loyal customers. Unlock the Power of AI Tools: AI isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a game-changer for businesses. Neal shows you how to harness cutting-edge AI tools to streamline your marketing efforts, improve efficiency, and gain a competitive edge. From chatbots to personalized content creation, Digital Threads reveals the possibilities of AI in digital marketing. Implement SEO and Lead Generation Strategies: Building a strong online presence starts with getting noticed. Learn Neal’s proven methods for optimizing your website for search engines, creating compelling lead magnets, and turning website visitors into customers. You’ll understand how to leverage the full potential of SEO and generate high-quality leads that convert. Scale Your Marketing with Automation: As your business grows, so should your marketing. Neal offers a deep dive into marketing automation tools that allow you to save time, maintain a personal connection with your audience, and scale your marketing efforts seamlessly. Navigate Influencer and User-Generated Content: Influencer marketing isn’t just for celebrities. Neal explains how small businesses can tap into micro-influencers and user-generated content to build authentic engagement, grow brand loyalty, and increase reach. Digital Threads takes a hands-on approach, providing step-by-step frameworks, real-world examples, and case studies that bring the strategies to life. Whether you're just getting started or refining your digital marketing game plan, this book delivers a complete roadmap to success. With endorsements from industry thought leaders such as Michael Stelzner (founder of Social Media Examiner), Brian Solis (digital futurist and author), and Ann Handley (Wall Street Journal bestselling author), Digital Threads is not just a book—it’s your guide to building a sustainable, successful brand in the digital age. Who Should Read Digital Threads? Small Business Owners: If you’re ready to take your business to the next level but aren’t sure where to start with digital marketing, this book is for you. Entrepreneurs: Whether you’re launching your first company or expanding an existing venture, Digital Threads provides the strategies you need to grow your brand in the digital marketplace. Content Creators: Learn how to make the most of your content and distribute it across multiple platforms to maximize impact and reach. Marketing Students and Professionals: Stay ahead of the curve with fresh insights into the latest digital marketing trends, including AI and content repurposing. Service Providers: If you’re looking to grow your client base through effective digital marketing strategies, Digital Threads will show you how to build a robust online presence. By the end of Digital Threads, you’ll have the knowledge, tools, and confidence to: - Build a strong digital footprint that drives measurable results - Expand your reach and increase engagement across digital platforms - Optimize content for SEO and lead generation - Implement marketing automation to scale your efforts - Leverage AI tools for maximum efficiency Build lasting relationships with customers through influencer and user-generated content If you’re serious about mastering digital marketing, Digital Threads is the playbook you need. Start weaving your path to digital success today.

BPM is essential to a company's survival in today's hyper-speed business environment. The goal of Digital Transformation is to help empower enterprises to compete at the highest level in any marketplace. This book provides compelling award-wining case studies contributed by those who have been through the full BPM experience. The case studies describe the processes involved to generate successful ROIs and competitive advantages. Digital transformation describes the changes associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of human society. Digital transformation may be thought of as the third stage of embracing digital technologies: from digital competence to digital usage to digital transformation, with usage and transformative ability informing digital literacy. The transformation stage means that digital usages inherently enable new types of innovation and creativity in a particular domain, rather than simply enhance and support the traditional methods. These industry thought-leaders together with the leading-edge case studies will help you understand the meaning and impact of Digital Transformation and how you can leverage that transformation; likely using BPM you already have. Learn how to extend that into core processes that run the business and thus engage more meaningfully with your customers. The authors discuss the impact of emerging technologies, the mandate for greater transparency and how the ongoing aftershocks of globalization have collectively impacted predictability within the business enterprise.

This book introduces machine learning and its applications in smart environments/cities. At this stage, a comprehensive understanding of smart environment/city applications is critical for supporting future research. This book includes chapters written by researchers from different countries across the globe and identifies critical threads in research and also gaps that open up new and challenging lines of research for the future. Recent advances are discussed, and thorough reviews introduce readers to critical domains. The discussion on key research topics presented in this book accelerates smart city and smart environment implementations based on IoT technologies. Consequently, this book supports future research activities aimed at developing future IoT architectures for smart environments/cities.

This fifth edition of “Product Lifecycle Management” updates and adds to the successful fourth edition, the most frequently cited PLM publication. It gives the reader a thorough explanation of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and provides them with a full understanding and the skills to implement PLM within their own business environment. This new and expanded edition is fully updated to reflect the many technological and management advances made in PLM since the release of the fourth edition. “Product Lifecycle Management” will broaden the reader’s understanding of PLM, nurturing the skills needed to implement PLM successfully and to achieve world-class product performance across the lifecycle. Among the components of PLM described are product-related business processes, product data, product data management (PDM) systems, other PLM applications, best practices, company objectives and organisation. This book also describes the relationships of PLM with the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, Digital Twins and Digital Threads. “Product Lifecycle Management” (5th edition) explains what PLM is, and why it is needed. It describes the environment in which products are ideated, developed, manufactured, supported and retired, before addressing the main components of PLM and PLM Initiatives. Key activities in PLM Initiatives described include organisational change management (OCM) and project management. The final part of the book addresses the PLM Initiative, showing the typical steps and activities of a PLM project or initiative.

This book introduces and demonstrates the state-of-the art research and development in tackling sustainable urban and rural integration, supported by digitalization and digital transformation in rural areas with Industry 4.0/5.0 technologies. Digital Transformation with AI and Smart Servicing Technologies for Sustainable Rural Development is centered around how to deal with the sustainable urban and rural integration with advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, Crowdsourcing, Crowdsensing and digital twin applications. Digital Transformation with AI and Smart Servicing Technologies for Sustainable Rural Development comes from the authors international collaborative projects funded by British Council and National Sciences Foundation of China and our Newton Prize Winning project founded by UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. It covers digital platform design with integrated crowdsourcing, crowdsensing and digital twin technologies for smart community services and governing. The authors discuss smart textile design for health and social care and VR/AR based tele-healthcare services for plants, livestock, and people. It also presents smart building technologies and integrated services for remote rural areas. This book will be a valuable reference for multidisciplinary researchers, policy makers, urban and rural development engineers, and university students to support their research and work in AI and smart technology applications.

How can you stand out? How do you take your passion and turn it into profit? In Branding in a Digital World, author Hilary JM Topper discusses how branding your business – from your overall image to messaging – is paramount to its success. In this hands-on workbook, she will help you build a brand, market it effectively across digital media, and ultimately, get a strong return on investment. Topper, an expert in branding and digital communications, walks you step-by-step through the process and helps you get the results you desire. She teaches you how to: • build an integrated marketing plan. • use social media marketing. • recruit ambassadors for your brand. • integrate IoT and wearable tech. • create compelling blog and social content. • increase your SEO. • use public relations, direct mail, and email marketing to tie together the entire process. With special sections on fake news, nonprofit management, and more, Branding in a Digital World offers a complete guide to help you learn to better market your product or service so you can gain a competitive edge.

The Digital Twin book is about harnessing the power of technology, business practices, and the digital infrastructure to make revolutionary improvements for the benefit of society. Ninety experts from around the world contributed to summarize four decades of digital advances and successes, and to define the Digital Twin’s potential for the decades ahead. The book describes how Digital Twins will play a key role in specific applications and across important sectors of the global economy, making it a must-read for executives, policymakers, technical leaders, researchers, and students alike. The book consists of thirty-eight chapters that cover Digital Twin concepts, supporting technologies, practices, and specific implementation strategies for various production and service sectors. Digital Twins are about creating faster, less expensive, and error-free manufacturing, products, processes, and services. This includes engineering of systems for energy, communications, construction, transportation, and food processing. It also covers solutions for making human existence better and more enjoyable through the life sciences, smart cities, and artistic creations. The Digital Twin’s functionality addresses the entire lifecycle of products and services. Importantly, the book describes the journey required for businesses and public organizations to embrace Digital Twins as part of their tool kit. The Digital Twin is the ideal starting point for teaching and research in all application domains.