Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 253

The Best That Social Media Has To Offer

Episode #405 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Jay Baer is back and he's doing what most people in Social Media are not doing: making big and smart moves (and good money, as well I am sure). He took his last business book, Youtility, a sound it off to create, Youtility For Accountants (with more industry-specific versions to come). And, as if that weren't enough, he also recently launched, Social Pros All-Stars, which is an ebook, Slideshare presentation and trading cards of social media brand professionals. Very smart and strategic marketing (which industry pro wouldn't keep their own trading card front and center on their desk, making Jay and his team top of mind?). If you have yet to fall in love with his blog, Convince And Convert, or his first book, The Now Revolution (which he co-wrote with Amber Naslund) or his podcast, Social Pros, you don't know what you're missing. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #405.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #199

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

Swedish Pop Mafia - Pacific Standard . "Normally I'd route musical stuff to Mitch, but Hugh, I think you'll like the unintended-consequences feel of this. It's about why Sweden drives modern pop music. Sweden, you say? 'What Hollywood is to movies and what Silicon Valley is to computing, Stockholm is to the production of pop.' And all because the country's elders, in the 1940s, tried to put baby in a corner." (Alistair for Hugh).

Our Comrade The Electron . "This is the annotated transcript of an amazing talk given in February at Webstock, a conference in New Zealand. It's an epic talk about Communism, the Theremin, and how electricity concentrates power in more than just technical ways. I only wish I'd seen the talk live. Since you've been talking about Big Data, Mitch, this seems like a fitting anecdote." (Alistair for Mitch).

Why UPS Trucks Don't Turn Left - Priceonomics . "Data should drive your decisions, as Alistair (co-author of Lean Analytics - aka the 'Measure-It Bible') will tell you - if you give him half a chance. In the case of UPS , data drove the company to make an edict for all drivers: never, ever turn left, no matter what." (Hugh for Alistair).

Carpets For Airports . "Mitch logs more hours in the air than anyone else I know. And, I wonder, does Mitch sometimes ask himself, before he gets on a plane, 'What will the carpets look like at O'Hare?' Now he can find out, so he isn't surprised when he arrives. This, dear readers, is what the Internet was built for." (Hugh for Mitch).

Why 40% of us think we're in the top 5% - Smart Planet . "Here's the thing about data: the more we get of it and the more we're able to take these disparate data sets and meld them into a bigger bucket, we start seeing some truisms. These are the types of truisms that most of us are (presently and sadly) ignoring. Little things like: our gut decisions are often wrong, how we can't truly identify genius and, probably most disturbing, how dumb we actually are. Data rules, you morons! ;)" (Mitch for Alistair).

French say 'non' to work email after 6 p.m. - cNet . "Ahh, who doesn't want to spend their entire childhood and teenage years studying in an old school education institution that is making young people miserable, feeling inadequate and, ultimately, forcing them into a regiment of memorization of things they should never need to remember? I see this often when you look at more traditional European countries and their non-progressive school curriculums The good news? You get to graduate and become a 'fonctionnaires,' (if you live in France). A place that makes insane rules like this. I have a better idea: why stop at email? Just shut down the electricity for all fonctionnaires so nobody has to do anything? Alternately, you could just say, 'hey, what if we let these adults make their own rules and attempt to find their own balance? Wow, what decade are we living in? How stupid do we think that people are?" (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

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bitcurrent

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carpets for airports

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human 20

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librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

media hacks

our comrade the electron

pacific standard

pressbooks

priceonomics

smart planet

social media

solve for interesting

ups

webstock

year one labs

The Sad (And Hilarious) State Of Silicon Valley

This is Not Safe For Work (NSFW, as the cool kids say).

I laughed, cried and almost could not watch this show in its entirety (it's both true and painful if you have spent some time out there). It is the first episode (season one) of a show called, Silicon Valley, on HBO.  The show  was created by three guys - once of them being Mike Judge from Beavis And Butt-head and King Of The Hill fame (Silicon Valley is not animation). As I warned above, the content is pretty raw... and hilarious. YouTube has the entire first episode posted online.

In case you haven't seen it, here is the first episode of Silicon Valley...

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My Voice Is My Password

Is your head bleeding? Is your heart bleeding?

Here's my thought (and, I say this with full disclosure that I am no IT expert and have limited knowledge of the hacking space beyond a personal interest in better understanding technology - peace and love... peace and love...), but the process of text-based passwords needs to be tossed out. It just has to happen. We're all still trying to understand what the ramifications are of this nefarious Heartbleed bug is, and what it all means. Right now, some of the most frequently and commonly used online tools and sites are asking all of their users to change their passwords because of this bug. Some of these places are uncertain as to whether or not they have been hit, so changing your password before these services update their own systems with a fix would be a big mistake. The best source to sort this all out, for my dollar, has been this Mashable page: The Heartbleed Hit List: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now.

Why this is so important to talk about for marketers?

The brands that win are the brands that can be trusted. Problems like Heartbleed erode the public's trust. This is problematic on many levels. On top of this, while we can simply acknowledge that technology has these types of bugs, viruses and hiccups that come from a myriad of directions, let's admit it: human beings are lazy (I know that I am) and while it's a massive pain to go back and change the passwords on all of these platforms, it's getting increasingly more frustrating because you then need to remember them all, store them in a safe place, and re-enter them all across multiple devices (computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets). From there, if you're using any of the tools that enable you to share content through social media channels (Buffer app and others come to mind), you need to re-input and re-authorize the apps in there as well. Uch.

It's like a full time job to manage this stuff, isn't it? 

It gets worse. Last night, the Wall Street Journal reported that Heartbleed may have infiltrated some of the Cisco and Juniper Networks equipment as well. That's not good. It means that hackers might be able to snag user names, passwords and other sensitive information as it moves across the corporate and home networks and routers on the Internet. So, you could change your passwords and then fall prey to hackers simply because your hardware (or a network along the way) has not cleaned up the bug yet. What a mess.

Blame the passwords.

These systems were built in a such a way that invites problems and challenges. Technology is doing a ton of things these days that it was never intended to do. I don't think anyone would argue that the Internet was not intended to do everything that it is doing today. Many would argue that even having a commercial Internet is - in and of itself - something that was never truly supposed to be. Part of fixing these issues from a consumer experience perspective means removing the friction. Making it easier for people to connect and share is paramount to the continued growth and development of these channels. This means that we need to fix this whole password issue.

Some thoughts on a better way to connect.

I read with interest The Globe And Mail article published yesterday, Fed up with passwords? These tech experts are seeking alternatives. From the article: "Quietly, a movement is taking shape within the technology industry to finally kill off the traditional password - driven not only by growing consumer outcry, but also the twin scandals of high-profile hacking incidents that exposed customer information at major corporations such as Target, as well as the Edward Snowden revelations about the extent of digital government surveillance. The flaws of traditional computer security once again came under the public spotlight this week, after security experts revealed the existence of a flaw called 'Heartbleed.' The bug, considered one of the most significant security weaknesses in recent history, Heartbleed affects the encryption used to protect some of the most sensitive data on the Internet, including passwords and personal information." The news item goes on to source several interesting technology companies that are working to replace text passwords with things like fingerprint readers, voice recognition engines and even heart rhythm monitors.

Organic solutions to technical challenges.

In short, we need to use the small things that make us individuals unique from one another as the way in which to secure the content, flow and information we connect with. Thinking that this problem can simply be brushed beneath the carpet is a massive mistake (as the world is finding out this week). We jokingly make our passwords simple for us to remember, but in doing so expose our most personal information in a very profound way. We seriously make our passwords complex, so that no one can hack into it and we wind up up forgetting them or being frustrated every time we have to input them. Thankfully, there are apps like 1Password and LastPass that manages the myriad of passwords and devices that we have, and they have not been affected by this bug (at this time), but who knows? One thing is for certain: perhaps Heartbleed brought the importance of passwords and consumer protection to the top of our minds... and that's probably a good thing.

I'd love to know what your thoughts on the trouble with passwords.

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Some Questions About Your Questionable Content

Marketers, we have a problem...

Do you know how long an effective Facebook post should be? If I told you forty characters, what would your reaction be? A tweet should be 100 characters (even though Twitter affords you 140 of them). It makes perfect sense, right? I know that people like Tom Webster over at Edison Research is, without a doubt, rolling his eyes. I'm with him. But, that was the latest headline from Fast Company in an article titled, The Proven Ideal Length Of Every Tweet, Facebook Post, And Headline Online. All over the world, junior brand and community managers are building PowerPoint decks with charts, graphs and quotes from this article in an effort to demonstrate both how "in the know" they are, and how antiquated the upper echelons of the marketing and communications are. Those silly dinosaurs running the show in their corner offices, don't even know how valueless most of what they do has become.

Don't be fooled by the numbers (even if they are small ones).

Length does not equate to quality, value or substance. It's an arbitrary number that is being allotted to a very crowded (and hyper-saturated) marketplace that hosts very finicky and tough to understand consumers who, in one instance, will "like" a picture of a dog licking itself and within the same brush of the finger also like a group denouncing human rights in Syria. Ahh, the human condition. So mystical. So difficult to pin down. The question is asked often, and in various ways:

How long should a tweet be?

How long should a Facebook post be?

What is the right balance between content and images?

How long should a podcast be?

How long should a blog post be?

How long should a business book be?

How long should a movie be?

How long should an article be?

How long should a... you get the point?

What matters more than the mechanics?

We get caught up in the mechanics and completely forget about why we're creating anything in the first place. Ultimately, it should be twofold:

Create value.

Create awareness.

The answer to all of the questions above surrounding length is rather simple: content should be as long as it needs to be to create value. I've seen movies that have been three hours long and movies that have been thirty minutes long that have changed my life (and how I think about humanity). Research Brief posted a fascinating article - at just around the same time as the Fast Company one mentioned above - titled, Trusted Content Closes Vendor Selection. So, it's not about the content... it's about the quality of it and the level of trust that it inspires. It's true, we often ask the wrong questions about the content that we're creating and, in doing so, we wind up creating content that doesn't get traction. The net result being a perception that either content marketing doesn't work or that content marketing doesn't work for our brands. Both are misnomers. Putting aside any kind of viral effect that some are lucky enough to achieve (do you believe in unicorns?), we need to be asking more profound (and real) questions about the content that brands are putting out into the world. So, before you put finger to keypad in an effect to pump out an extra few free impressions to a saturated social media channel, sit down and ask yourself the following:

How trusted as a source of information is our organization?

Is there a third-party who might be better suited to help us with our content?

What is point of this content and who is it educating?

Is this content "me too" or unique and additive to the current flow of discourse?

Who are we looking to speak to with this? Customers in discovery mode? Qualification mode? Final selection mode?

Once this content is created how will it be distributed? Our own channels? Third-party channels or platforms?

How will this piece of content help the decision makers be influenced?

How will this content help our potential customer make the best decision (and yes, this may even mean buying from someone else)?

Is our content broad and expansive or is it myopic and narcissistic?

Are the people we are speaking to more interested in fresh research and data or editorial-like content?

Is our content the type of work that the industry influencers would pay attention to and share or is it closer to a de-jargonated press release?

Does our content allow for honest commentary between us and the community?

Is our content both findable and shareable to everyone that it needs to be?

The path to purchase is complex.

That's the main thing that every brand needs to focus on. Content that understands and responds to the thirteen questions above will change the brand and help it add more value to the path to purchase. What this Research Brief article also illustrates is something that many digital marketing pundits (like myself) have been banging the drum about for some time: Yes, the path to purchase is complex, but "The Internet is the primary place where business buyers begin the path to purchase. 68% start their content sourcing at search engines and portals, 40% go to vendor websites, and 25% are activated by an email from a trusted source or peer."

If you read nothing else, go back and re-read that last sentence.

If there was ever a case for digital marketing to lead all marketing initiatives (B2B, B2C, a small impulse buy or a year-long sales cycle) this is it. The Internet is the primary place where business buyers begin the path to purchase. This is a critical and key message. So, if you thought that the thirteen questions above are going to make you bang your head against the wall, start asking yourself a whole new set of questions about what your brand is truly doing to to engage with those who are simply kicking tires, those who are looking for a preferred vendor and those who are trying to validate the choice of vendor that they have already made. Too many brands are churning out this chum of content without the focus, intensity and voracity that is truly required to qualify any/all of this content marketing as a "success."

Make no mistake about it... it starts with you. That being said, it all starts online.

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TED And The Art of Loyalty

People don't like to admit just how addicted they are to their smartphones.

I won't be the first to blog about how many people are quite sensual with their devices. Don't laugh. Think about the way you caress, touch, and engage with it. What is the last thing that you touch before you go to bed at night, or the first thing that you pick up when you wake up in the morning? What, too personal? Be honest: what's your time to device in the am? Now compare that to your time to spouse? There is an ongoing debate about just how loyal consumers can (and should) be in such a fragmented world, but I'm here to tell you that loyalty is alive and well. Real loyalty (the stuff that transcends data sets, points accumulation and redemption strategies) is the stuff of legend. What if a brand was able to create such a sense of loyalty, that the urgency with which the consumer responds to an email is similar to the "time to device" reality outlined above?

I've got a thing for TED.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. The origins of this annual get-together took hold in 1984, when Richard Saul Wurman (famed architect, book author and renaissance man) decided to pull together an exclusive group of guests for his vision of the ideal dinner party. Today, TED is curated by Chris Anderson through a charitable foundation, and is best known for the TED Talks that gobble up audiences by the hundreds of millions via online video channels (their own, YouTube, podcast, and more) and their 18-minute presentations on topics as diverse as creativity and education to how video games can save you and why every adult needs a LEGO collection. The event/gathering/conference now has a global event (held outside of North America) and is also associated with TEDx events (local organizers leveraging the TED brand and blueprint to create their own event around a specific geography or topic).

On March 17th of this year, I made my annual pilgrimage to the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia (like I have been doing since 2009).

I am loyal to all things TED. "Loyal beyond reason," as Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Wordlwide, Kevin Roberts, called it in his book, Lovemarks (TED is a lovemark). And, the reasons why act as a truth serum to other brands. My time to respond to TED emails over the years has become more like a "drop everything and pay attention," type of experience. Those emails are right up there with my pathetically quick time to device in the am. In a connected world, where consumers have access to anything and everything at the touch of a connected device, the brands that make us most loyal have to do a lot more to rope us in. TED does this is so many profound and powerful ways.

What is it about the TED experience that makes the TEDsters so loyal, and what can brands learn from organization?

You don't buy a ticket, you join a movement. Some think it's elitist, but I don't. It's exclusive. To take part in a TED experience, you can't just buy a ticket to the event. You apply to become a member and, if accepted, your membership fee includes a ticket to their annual event. Along with that, you get access to an online social network with other members. Membership also includes a book club. Throughout the year, physical books are shipped or digital versions can be grabbed on your Kindle. TED is not an event, it's a year-long build up of conversations and connections, so that the event becomes the crescendo.

It's not cheap and it's limited. By having a hefty price tag, TED is able to create a level scarcity. The scarcity is built not just on the fee, but in the physical limitation of the seats available for their annual event. A total of 1500 people are accepted. This is more limited than you might think, because people (like me) keep attending year in and year out, so as the popularity increases, the scarcity increases as well. They've managed to add on events to compensate (like TED Global) and to have satellite events (like TED Active, which is a live simulcast of the event in another city).

It's not about the stage. It's about the audience. TED releases all (or most) of the presentations for free online for everyone to watch, share and discuss. What everyone fails to realize is that the TED Talks account for only a small percentage of the TED experience. Because of the components mentioned above, the audience members are often just as (if not more) impressive as the people on the stage. The ability to rub shoulders, engage in discourse and have candid conversations with these types of luminaries from the technology, design, entertainment, business and the non-profit sectors is the real show. The curation of the audiences members is just as rigid as the speaker selection process.

TED is gymnastics for the brain. Because TED curates the content and experience in such a tight and military-like fashion, it is designed to keep even the most Type A of business leaders on their collective heels. It is a full week of visual and mental immersion. It's the type of experience that is hard to express in written or verbal forms of communication. I often tell people that talking about TED is like dancing to architecture (to spin the old Martin Mull saying that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture."). It's that type of muscle confusion-like experience that keeps everyone coming back, and attempting to explain it to anyone who will listen.   

How does your brand build that type of loyalty?

Are you getting people to join a movement, instead of simply buying a product or service? Can you create a sense of scarcity and exclusivity for your customers by creating an experience that everyone will want and talk about and share? Are you building something that will have your customers begging to be more connected - not just to your brand, but to other customers that you serve? Is what you're doing creating a sense of business muscle-confusion, (in a good way) for your customers? Is every interaction with them adding value to their experiences and making them smarter at scale?

Tough questions to answer.

It's not as simple as getting a customer's email address or engaging with them on Facebook. It takes more than getting them to hand over some personal information in exchange for a card and some type of points/coupon plan. That's not the true essence of loyalty. That's a loyalty program. The powerful brands - the ones that really connect - are the ones who are deeply focused on creating a TED-like experience for their consumers... year in and year out.

It's a higher calling for the brands of today.

The above posting is a column that was published to day in Colloquy . I cross-post it here unedited, with all of the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

Colloquy - TED and the Art of Loyalty .

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CTRL ALT Delete - Weekly Technology And Digital Media Review - CHOM FM #26

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

iMedia Canada Summit happens in Montreal this week.

The massive growth of digital ad spend.

The power to measure everything online.

Does digital advertising work? Does anyone click on these ads?

Honey Maid's advertising and their response to haters.

Montreal Children's Hospital uses SMS and more to curb wait times.

App of the week: Calm.

Listen here...

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calm

chom 977 fm

chom fm

ctrl alt delete

ctrl alt delete with mitch joel

digital advertising

digital advertising spend

digital media

facebook

guest contributor

heather backman

honey maid

imedia

imedia canada summit

montreal childrens hospital

montreal radio

morning show

mornings rock with terry and heather b

radio segment

radio station

social media

soundcloud

technology

terry dimonte

The Perils Of Social Media

Episode #404 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

I first heard the voice of Eric Schwartzman over a decade ago as a contributor to the For Immediate Release podcast. I was always impressed with how he managed to score some major industry leaders for his still-running podcast, On The Record...Online. Since then, Schwartzman has built an impressive resume of communications consulting to business, global nonprofits, the US Military, US Federal government agencies and foreign governments. He's also the best-selling coauthor of Social Marketing To The Business Customer, the first book devoted exclusively to B2B social media communications. But that's not all. He's also an entrepreneur. He sold his first startup, iPressroom, to private investors in 2010 and just recently launched, Comply Socially, which helps employers manage risk and scale engagement on social media with online training. Businesses and individuals are being put to task for things that they post online, now Schwartzman is helping public companies (mostly) both unlock the productivity gains of social media communications, while protecting individuals from misrepresenting brands or violating the law. It's a pretty fascinating business for a time that finds every individual as media channel unto themselves. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #404.

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blog

blogging

brand

business book

business podcast

comply socially

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david usher

digital marketing

eric schwartzman

facebook

for immediate release podcast

ipressroom

itunes

marketing blogger

marketing podcast

on the record online

podcast

podcasting

social marketing to the business customer

social media

twitter

video podcast

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #198

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

The Uncomfortable - Facebook . "This set of artifacts, designed by architect, Katerina Kamprani , will drive you bonkers. She takes everyday items, and then changes them to render them completely useless. It's definitely art. Most of these things could only come from a really twisted, deviant mind. OCD trigger warning." (Alistair for Hugh). 

Motivation Wave - BJ Fogg . "As any marketer knows, changing behaviors is hard. Whether you're trying to improve someone's health, or convince them to buy your product, changing habits is tough. Stanford's BJ Fogg has spent a lot of time researching this in the university's Persuasive Technology Lab. That 'persuasive technology' is a field of study in the first place says a lot about the world in which we live." (Alistair for Mitch).

Demo of Beat It composed using only Michael Jackson's voice - Rhythm Of The Tide . "I was going to send Alistair an amazing xkcd comic this week (you can look it up on Google : xkcd frequency ), but Alistair has probably seen it, and will probably see 22 more amazing xkcd comics this year. Instead, I am sending this, which is more of a one-of-a-kind sort of thing. Michael Jackson , apparently, never truly mastered playing instruments, but he composed and arranged - note for note - in his head. He would record and layer vocals/acapella versions of his songs, using his voice for all the instruments. Here is the amazing vocal arrangement he did for Beat It ." (Hugh for Alistair).   

A Growing Number of E-Commerce Sites Are Moving Into Print - AdWeek . "You know what technology has great, finely-honed UI and really, really good user engagement? Paper. Here's a surprising development: web/ecommerce companies starting to put out old fashioned print catalogs." (Hugh for Mitch).

Knowledge transfer between computers: Computers teach each other Pac-Man - Science Daily . "Have they found that plane that's still missing? I watch CNN relentlessly when I am on the road... and, I was on the road quite a bit this week. I am in no way trying to minimize the fact that this plane must be found (or the tragedy surrounding it for the families), but I'm amazed that the 24-hour news cycle spins a 'breaking news' moment of this missing plane with nothing truly 'breaking' at all. Instead, stuff like this comes out and you don't even hear about it. It turns out that computers can actually train each other and teach skills to one another. What? No way! Way." (Mitch for Alistair).

The Wikipedia For Numbers Just Made My Job Easier, But It Needs Your Help To Be Even Better - Business Insider . "Have you ever heard of Meterfy ? Me neither. In fact, most people haven't, so it ain't as robust as Wikipedia ... but it could be. Yes, this is a Wikipedia for numbers. A way for people to post and share anything and everything related to numbers. This is a smart, cool and fun place. I sincerely hope it takes off. A Wikipedia for numbers. Makes sense to me." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

Tags:

adweek

alistair croll

beat it

bitcurrent

bj fogg

book a futurists manifesto

business insider

cnn

complete web monitoring

facebook

gigaom

google

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

katerina kampriani

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

media hacks

meterfy

michael jackson

pac man

persuasive technology lab

pressbooks

rhythm of the tide

science daily

social media

solve for interesting

stanford

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If You're In Business, You Need To Watch This CrossFit Documentary

Surfing across Apple TV , I came across something that you should watch this weekend.

Let me take a step back. Around 2000, I had heard about this crazy website, where a well-respected trainer was trying to completely disrupt the fitness space. It was called CrossFit. Every day, they would post on a blog a workout of the day. At first, it was criticized and ridiculed by many pundits in the industry. Any serious trainer would use more professional gear and would never post this type of proprietary system online for free. A lot of the gear was stuff that you might have lying around in your garage. What were they thinking?

Have you check out the business of CrossFit lately?

People are quick to point to Apple and Amazon as these untouchable beacons of corporate perfection, but spend some time looking at CrossFit. From how they disrupted the industry to how they communicate and connect with consumers. It is a master class in understanding the powerful connection between business success and marketing. My dear friend, Jeffrey Hayzlett, has a great television show on Bloomberg called, C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett, where he create mini-documentaries on interesting companies and speaks to the owners, customers and employees to see what makes them tick. This episode isn't a new one . It just happens to be 30 minute business documentary that I watched with amazement the other night and it's something that you should watch and share as well.

It is inspiring. My hope is that it inspires you as well... 

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