Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 255

Top 15 Rules For Business Writers

Are there rules for great writing when it comes to business?

I am often asked where I find the time to write. I am often asked about why I write and publish so much content. I am often asked where I find the inspiration for the content that I create. I am often asked how I decide which ideas are turned into books or blog posts or articles. The answer is simple: I don't just love to write, I am dedicated to writing because I am a writer. As much as I love marketing and helping brands connect better to their consumers, it all starts with words on a page (for me). I have been writing non-fiction since the late eighties. I have written hundreds (probably thousands) of articles for newspapers and magazines over the years. I have written two business book (Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete). I have contributed chapters and content to several other business books. I have published well over 5000 blog post entries since 2002. I write. I write... and I keep on writing. Today, every brand is trying to create more content. They are realizing the value in issuing more than a press release or advertorial. This shift in content is, at its core, forcing brands to become better (and more creative) writers. Consumers no longer have patience for jargon and industry blather. They want to read something that resonates with them. Are there rules? Are there tricks? Are there shortcuts?

When it comes to writing for business, this I believe...   

1. Read. Read. Read. If you don't read a ton, you will never be a great (or relevant) writer. Reading brings perspective. Reading illuminates ideas. Reading will force you to ask yourself some tough questions. Read fiction. Read non-fiction. Read industry related magazines, websites and blogs. Subscribe to e-newsletters. Follow interesting people on Twitter and Facebook. Read magazines and subjects that you have no immediate interest in. Read different perspectives (even people you do not agree with). To be inspired, you have to get inspired. Reading creates a perpetual wealth of inspiration. Even poorly written and boring books can inspire you as well (just drop them if it's truly dreadful).

2. There is no such thing as writer's block. What do you do if the words are not flowing... if you are blocked. In truth, you aren't blocked. Trust me. Seth Godin said it best: you don't have thinker's block and you don't have talker's block, so you can't have writer's block. There is simply no such thing. If you have trouble believing me, there are two books that you should read and the words will always flow after that. Check out Steven Pressfield's The War Of Art (or Do The Work) and Mark Levy's The Accidental Genius. Start with Mark's book and focus, almost exclusively, on his exercises for free writing. Trust me, if you're thinking and you're talking, you can be writing.

3. Write for yourself. Too many people sit down, stare at the blank screen and wonder to themselves, "what do people want to read?" Huge mistake. You sat down because something inspired you. It may have been something you saw or something you read. Write those words down without judgment. Don't worry about what people will think. Write for yourself. Dig deep. Pull out everything. Every emotion. Ultimately, people connect with content that is real. That reads like it was written by a real human being. They want the words to bleed. If you need inspiration, check out Charles Bukowski for the rawest of raw. If you want something closer to the business world, people like James Altucher and Bob Lefsetz write with their hearts on their sleeves. It oozes out of them. They're writing for themselves, and in doing so are finding and connecting with others who want more content that is real.

4. Write fast. This doesn't mean to publish fast. It means to write fast. Too many people start writing and harp on each and every word, the grammar and more. You will get to that. The act of real business writing should start with a simpler action: write. Write it all down. Write it down as fast at it comes. You must always set aside some time later to tweak, edit, chop, improve and fix the nuances. If you bring to your writing a sense of urgency, you will have fewer issues getting stuck or - even worse - not being able to begin. Even if you're heading down the wrong path, please keep writing fast and let the words flow, you may well be surprised at how quickly your fingers and brain will course-correct.

5. Write quiet. You need to be alone with your thoughts. This doesn't mean that you should need full silence to work (check out the next point), it just means that you need to focus on the words. So, if you're able to not be around the TV or music with lyrics, do that (external conversations could influence your content - whether you're aware of it or not). This isn't about distraction in as much as it's about allowing the words from your brain to find your fingers in the most direct path as possible. Personally, I find that writing with music that has no lyrics (preferably mellow jazz or classical music) can sometimes help and sometimes hinder the flow of words. Lately, I have been enjoying the act of writing while the Coffitivity app is working in the background. It's like white noise, but with the sounds of a coffee shop. So, sounds are fine, but you want your mind to be quiet to the words.

6, Write anywhere. If you love to write and you have something to say, you can write anywhere. I know far too many people who approach writing with their snoots in the air. They need a specific location, they need their rituals, they need specific pens and papers or software or whatever. Forget all that. Suck it up and write. When I used to be deeply involved in coaching close-quarters combatives, we would often work/train with military personnel. We would often be told stories of how they would be in the back of a truck, heading towards a hostile zone for combat, and their leaders would tell them to grab a nap. Within minutes everyone would be sleeping. How is that possible? I'd be too nervous to sleep, the bouncing of the truck would keep me awake and so much more. These soldiers were told to sleep (without knowing when they might get another chance to rest), so they went to sleep. When it's time to write, I think about these soldiers. If they can sleep in those conditions, I can write anywhere. This includes an airport gate, a doctor's waiting room or whatever. I also love this quote from Henry Rollins: "If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you." When I want to be a better writer, I think of this quote.

7. Create a schedule. Stick to it. The problem that blogging brought to writing is the ability for anyone to write and publish whenever they wanted. Yes, that's a problem. To really become a great business writer, you need a schedule and you need to stick to it. When people love and want content, they don't want it sporadically. They want to feel comfortable with it. They want to know when it's coming and how frequently they can get it. For this, you need to build a plan and get your readers on a schedule. The best part about this? The schedule also forces you to get much more consistent with your writing.

8. Don't worry about your voice. I've heard many writers tell me that they are still trying to find their voice. Over the years, I have come to believe that every writer does have a voice, but very few will ever know what it truly is or when they found it. Instead of waiting to find your voice, aim for consistency. Consistently force yourself to write and to get better. Work on it. Write. Write some more. What you will find is this: the more you write, the more consistent the quality of your writing becomes, the more it improves overall, and then a voice will emerge. Whether you know it and plan for it or not.

9. Stay healthy. Smoking. Drinking. Fast food. Ah, the life of a writer! It's going to kill you. It's going to kill you even faster if you spend the bulk of your waking hours hunched over a MacBook Air. Great words come when your entire body is in good physical and mental shape. This means your mind, body and spirit. Don't worry, I'm not going to get all New Age-y on you, but don't think for a second that taking the time to have a clean/healthy diet, coupled with a regular exercise regime and some mindfulness exercises won't improve your output exponentially. It will. I read a great book called, Daily Rituals, that tells the story of the world's greatest writers and their daily practices. I was, somewhat, shocked (but not all that surprised) at how many of the world's most loved authors take plenty of time in their day to do some form of brisk exercise along with mental breaks. Just don't mistaken these activities for procrastination. So, if you're writing regularly, move regularly and eat wholesome foods.

10. Create an outline. If it's a short piece of content, just spend a couple of minutes writing out - in bullet-point form - everything that you would like to cover. If it's for a longer piece or book, prepare a proper outline. My personal preference is to write out a paragraph about what I'm looking to cover (my thesis) and then chapter (or major paragraph) summaries. This works like magic, because if you start writing off-topic, you can keep on going and simply copy/paste that content where it belongs, because you have an outline. Here's a black belt tip for this: if you're going to write anything of any significant length, use the software Scrivener. It's amazing and it enables you to see your outline as you write.

11. Copy your heroes. This may seem contentious, but it's not. If you read something that is truly compelling, it is because it fits with your style. What are the things that move you? Can you replicate it? What's your spin on it? I laughed the other week when Chris Brogan published a blog post titled, Seth Godin Said It Already. When you admire someone, their ideas (and the people who inspired them) are bound to leak into your work. Embrace it, study it and put your own reflection on it. If you need more source material for this, check out Austin Kleon's clever book, Steal Like An Artist.

12. Always ask questions. Writers think that they have all of the answers. They don't. The best writers ask great questions, they then use writing as a mechanism to find the answers. Malcolm Gladwell wanted to know how many hours it takes to become an expert, or why we think that Goliath had an unfair advantage over David? If I am ever stumped for something to write about, I choose an article that moved me and simply ask myself, "why?" Why do you agree or disagree with something? Why is your industry the way that it is? What would happen if you could kill your dogma? See. Questions. The more your ask, the more content you will have. Promise.

13. Share your work. Another hat tip to Austin Kleon for this one. He just published his latest book and it's called (wait for it), Show Your Work! Too many people try to protect, hide and do their writing in secret. The genie is out of the bottle. We all know that great writing is a process. Share the process. We have so many amazing online resources now to connect, share and communicate with one another. You don't need the permission of an editor to publish your content, and you don't even need a book publisher to get your book out into the world. In a world where everyone is creating content, why not be someone who shares your work?

14. Be real. Be human. This is, without a doubt, the biggest problem with business writing today. We either have a scenario where the company wants every single syllable to be as boring as their human resources handbook, or we have individuals with a title who feel like everything that they say needs to be at a level where no other human being can understand it. Both of these groups fall into the "we want to appear smart," category of writing. It sucks. It doesn't work, unless it true, real and authentic. There are smart writers out there (Clay Shirky, Nilofer Merchant and Douglas Rushkoff come to mind), who have big brains, but everything that they write is still very real and real human. This is the ultimate question that people creating business content must ask themselves when they think that they are done creating: is this content real? Is this content human? Will it touch and inspire someone's heart? If it reads like a press release or corporate drivel, please do yourself (and everyone else) a favor: start over.

15. Ask for input. Don't be afraid. At every moment that you need it. It could be to validate the core thesis, it could be a final proofing before you hit the publish button. If you're not confident in your thinking or your words, ask for input. Too many writers in our world believe that the work is a solo venture. Nobody can get the ideas from between your earholes on to the screen (this is true), but there is always someone who may be willing to lend their ears, eyes, hands and brain to help you formulate the piece to make it better. This is why the best writers use editors. Find your editors. Lean on them. Listen to them. Learn from them.

Those are my rules for business writers... what are yours?

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The Absolute Value Of Marketing

Episode #402 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Back in 2000 (yes, way back then), I read a book that made me rethink everything that I thought I knew about marketing. It was called, The Anatomy of Buzz, and it was written by Emanuel Rosen. Long before we were all talking about social media, viral videos, content marketing and more, Rosen was busy studying what makes people do the things that they do. You find a "best marketing books ever" list and not see The Anatomy of Buzz on it. Rosen, a former marketing professional, considers himself a writer, researcher, teacher and speaker. I'm fortunate because, over the years, Emanuel and I have become friends. In 2009, he looked again at what makes people talk about brands and wrote, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited. Now, he's back with a fascinating business book called, Absolute Value (that he co-wrote with Itamar Simonson). It has been getting incredible reviews... and for good reason. In this book, Emanuel wonders about the value of brands, marketing and advertising in a world where information is everywhere, available in real-time and spin becomes, increasingly, more difficult from brands to pull off. 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 #402.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #196

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:

Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It - Wired . "If something doesn't kill you, as the saying goes, it makes you stronger. That's sort of how evolution works, so when scientists devised a form of corn that poisoned a common pest, they told farmers to plant normal corn alongside it -- so the bugs that survived didn't build a resistance. Guess what? Like vaccines and global warming, people were happy to enjoy the benefits of the science but less quick to heed its warnings. The rest, you can probably figure out." (Alistair for Hugh).

Lumo Play - Give It 100 . "My friend Meg Athavale, from Winnipeg, is in Silicon Valley for four months as part of Highway1 - a hardware startup accelerator. She wants to take interactivity and projection mapping and turn it into a kid's toy. Meg's been at this for a few years now and her time at Highway1 will take her to Taiwan and China to work with manufacturers. It's a far cry from Winnipeg, where she's better known for poking fun at the mayor. And, she's keeping a journal, creating a video log of her experiences every day. Out of the Winnipeg chill, into the Logan's Run-like fishbowl of San Francisco Maker tech. I suspect it will get interesting fast." (Alistair for Mitch).

Billionaires With Big Ideas Are Privatizing American Science - The New York Times . "Ever was it thus, I suppose, but billionaires seem to be getting much better at being billionaires faster than governments are getting better at governing, and here's yet another indication of this direction." (Hugh for Alistair).

International Women's Day 2014: What's the difference between men and women's brains? Very little, says neuroscientist - The Independent . "In the nature vs nurture debate, I've always been a 'both' kind of guy. Certain brains are pre-disposed to certain kinds of development; when exposed at a certain environment, they'll grow in one way or another. Multiple by several billion times, and repeat over and during a lifetime. But: do girls and boys have different brains, biologically? I'm inclined to think yes-ish. Here's a recent neurologist saying no-ish." (Hugh for Mitch).

We already live in the age of robots--we just don't call them that - Quartz . "Does it need arms, legs and a face for us to call it a 'robot'? Don't laugh. This is a serious question. For a few years now, I've been fascinated with the growth of robots in our society. I'm a huge proponent that while everyone is paying attention to how robots are going to automate our workforce (as in, no more jobs for us, humans), that the real opportunity is in how robots are going to help us augment our work (make us stronger, allow us to focus more on the creativity and strategy, etc...). Well, in the meantime, it seems as though everyone (including journalists) are having a problem defining what a robot is. Is your bank machine a robot? What about the ATM? How about all of those Amazon drones that are coming?" (Mitch for Alistair).

A Tale of Two TEDs: Ideas Conference Triumphant on 30th Anniversary - Wired . "My head is spinning. If you could have dinner with ten fascinating people, who would it be? What if you could have dinner with people like Clay Shirky , Barry Schwartz, Nilofer Merchant , Steven Johnson , Scott Belsky, Jane McGonigal, Susan Cain , Amy Cuddy and Baratunde Thurston, would that be cool? I had dinner with those people (and a few others - can't forget Curt Beckmann and Andrew Blau) on Wednesday night at TED ... and that was the free night, the unorganized evening, so Nilofer and I pulled some friends together to hang out. I know... I know... it sounds like I'm name dropping. I apologize. My head is still spinning. It was a week that had me both fired up about the potential of what could be, and drained from the amazing connections, conversations and ideas that have filled a Moleskine . With each and every passing year, I get more and more excited about what the TED conference does for my professional and personal development. This article does a great job of explaining the diversity and some of the issues that TED faces. Ultimately, I feel that the conference is a lightning rod for contention (check out the comments) simply because it has become so popular. Personally, I can't think of another event (with the exception of Google Zeitgeist ) that I look forward to - with each and every passing year - as much as TED." (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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Are Brands Ready For The Instagram Economy?

When you hear the name Instagram, what do you think of?

For most brands, when they think of Instagram, three ideas probably enter their noggins: 1. The fact that the company got bought by Facebook in back in April 2012 for about one billion dollars (it still stings for most). 2. That there is currently no dramatic sign of advertising or marketing on this platform (making it difficult for brands to figure out an angle). 3. The opportunity to add more pictures to a social media experience (without knowing what the ROI might be). What if there was a way - a real way - for brands to make money (serious money) on Instagram?

Is Instagram the future of e-commerce?

Back in August 2012, I penned an article for the Harvard Business Review titled, Does Your Company Need an Instagram Storefront? It turned out that there was a burgeoning cottage industry being built in places like Kuwait for businesses that were interested in doing more on Instagram than selfies, regrams of people twerking or motivational quotes. Small business owners had begun posting pictures of products (and sometimes services) along with a short description and price. They augmented their Instagram descriptions with links to PayPal or Square for the handling of the actual transaction. If that weren't entrepreneurial enough, they included tools like WhatsApp (which Facebook also recently acquired) to facilitate live chat and customer support. If you're thinking that this sounds like small potatoes, you may not be thinking this through as thoroughly as you should be. Back in Kuwait, there are now businesses making millions of dollars with their Insta Businesses, and the trend is now taking hold in North America.

A new form of commerce that makes perfect sense.

Would you believe that twenty to forty percent of Fox & Fawn's revenue now comes from their Instagram business? They have two locations in Brooklyn, New York that focus on vintage clothing. They're not even as sophisticated as some of their counterparts in Kuwait. They're not using online merchant accounts or chat/messaging apps. If you see something you like on the Fox & Fawn Instagram feed, you simply leave a comment and then phone your order in with the store. Last week, The New York Times picked up on this innovative form of e-commerce with the article titled, On Instagram, a Bazaar Where You Least Expect It. Connie Wang runs a fashion site called, Refinery29, and had this to say in the article about Instagram's business potential: "It's so much more personal... It's not a Facebook or Twitter where everything seems like an advertorial. On Instagram, it feels like a discovery because you aren't there to shop -- but if something catches your eye and it's available, you're more likely to buy it."

Sounds great for the local merchant, but does it scale?

It seems like a no-brainer for small business and local merchants, doesn't it? No need to invest in a hefty Web build that will need shopping cart software, merchant accounts, social media extensions, search engine optimization and more (plus, the cost of driving traffic to a destination site, instead of simply being active in a social media environment that already has traffic and interest). Couple that with the ability to alternate and merchandise in near-real time, and this is about exciting and lean as it gets in terms of mobile commerce that can scale. What about major brands? From testing the opportunities of e-commerce directly with consumers, to launching specific product lines that may not require all of the functionality and control of a full blown-out e-commerce platforms, the possibilities seem endless. There are countless major brands that could use these types of channels to sell accessories and add-on products. If you're Apple, you could use a unique Instagram feed just for iPhone cases or one for cables (you get the idea).

This is, hopefully, the beginning of something new.

Strategically, an Instagram business makes sense for any brand that wants to test the waters on both a commerce and merchandising front. Even applying some level of performance-based advertising (Google AdWords, Facebook ads, promoted Tweets, etc...) against an Instagram feed can help a brand gauge the level of consumer interest, while helping a brand to better understand what gets people to talk about something (or ignore it). So, what happens when Instagram catches on to this burgeoning form of commerce? According to the New York Times article: "Instagram executives say they have no plans to halt e-commerce on the site, so long as a seller doesn't violate the company's terms of service by, for example, engaging in spamming. But Instagram has struggled to figure out how to make money. Its own early dabbling in advertising has been rocky, and has not progressed past a testing phase."

It seems like now would be the ideal time to stake some claim to this land, if you're looking for an innovative way to sell to consumers online.

The above posting is my monthly column on marketing innovation for Strategy Magazine . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

Strategy Magazine - Are brands ready for the Instagram economy?

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It's A Small (And Strange) World After All, Brands

How much control does a company really have over their brand?

Never has this question in business been asked more than in the past decade. Technology, the Internet and social media have been a virtual can of worms for brands that has extended well beyond the marketing department, and has poured over into everything from customer care, business innovation, the reputation of individual leaders within the organization, how a company hires employees and more. It's one of the fundamental reasons why I'm such a massive advocate for marketing to become a horizontal function within the organization instead of it's current role as a vertical. We need everyone (from employees to consumers) to understand what the brand is and how the stories are told, because every single one of us has become a media entity unto ourselves. We can talk about the merits of social media as an engine of engagement and conversation for brands, but the simple truth is that it is nothing more than a public publishing platform. A place where anyone - in text, images, audio and video - can create content, applications and communities about anything and everything. It's free (in terms of cost, not time and attention) and distributed globally for the world to see (also free, if you're not thinking about your Internet and mobile monthly bills). While the past fifteen years has brought with it a lot of innovation and depth, we're seeing how the nuances of the brand have started to shift in more dramatic ways.

What is the face of the brand?

Marketers wonder if there is a structured and prescribed way to dictate the sentiment and actions that we would, ideally, like customers and employees to have when they interact with a brand. What most successful brands still fail to realize is that in an environment of global interconnectivity, humans are also increasingly exposed to newer types of cultures and ways to connect. This means that newer ideas and ways to connect can be crossbred, much in the same way we're currently breeding very different kinds of dogs to create newer kinds of dogs (care for a Labradoodle, anyone?) or fruits (hungry for a Grapple? - yes, an apple that tastes like a grape). Brands are quickly starting to feel, understand and interact with their own little Frankenstein versions of themselves.

What does a crossbreed brand look like?

Imagine waiting in line for the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland, and suddenly coming across what looks like a Harley Davidson meets Fall Out Boy group of Disney fanatics. Tattoos of good ole Walt Disney on their calves, ripped jean jackets, piercings, patches of Daisy Duck surrounded in gang-like skulls and crossbones and more. It may feel like something out of a Tim Burton movie, but you have actually come face to face with the Neverlanders. This group of rag tags are more than 30 strong and were recently featured in an in-depth editorial piece by Vice called, The Punks Of Disneyland. It's a unique story about passionate brand evangelists (the kind of people who visit these properties so much, that they are actually on a first-name basis with the staff and characters) who have taken their love of all things Disney into a dramatic and alternative realm. This is much bigger than the annual Disney conventions for fans (D23 Expo) and the Neverlanders are not the only exclusive, members-only, social club that roams these parks and resorts (there is Main Street Elite, the Wonderlanders, Jungle Cruisers and many more). In the case of the Neverlanders, this group formed through social networking. They began connecting and sharing in spaces like Instagram long before they formalized themselves as an independent social club (some people call them a gang).

What do you think Disney has to say about all of this?   

Here's the official Disney quote from the Vice article about these roaming Disney fan gangs: "We are fortunate to have guests who share such a strong affinity for Disneyland Resort." What would you do? What would your brand position be on groups of people who love what you are doing this much, but still run down a much more alternative path than the brand might publicly be comfortable with? Granted, this isn't the challenge of all brands, but it begs an interesting question: If consumers are actually in control of the brand, and now they have the tools, resources and connections to do these types of things, what is the brand and what does it really stand for?

It's not just Disney.

For every legitimate and corporately run group like Jeep's annual Jeep Jamboree adventure event and meet-up, you have groups like IKEA Hackers. Formed in May 2006 on a blog, this website is now full of passionate IKEA customers who build their own, unique, projects by modifying and repurposing IKEA products. They are embellishing and adding their own elbow grease to figure out new and interesting types of furniture that can be built through various pieces of IKEA furniture. So, whether you would like to build your own iPad kiosk or a laundry organizer from standard IKEA kitchen cabinets, the possibilities are now endless. According to the IkeaHackers website, IKEA does not pay the owner or in any way sanctions or endorses it. It is purely a fan-run website.

It's a small world, for brands, afterall.

Brands now have a deeper optic into what, exactly, their heavy users want. In fact, what these examples demonstrate is that we can often never truly understand what consumers want, and when they do things like hack our products or roam our properties in a way that it was never intended, perhaps brands should be doing a better job of supporting, encouraging and helping them to be successful. Instead, most brands are attempting to keep them at arm's length. Steve Jobs from Apple once famously said: "people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

Perhaps, in today's age of connectivity and social media, brands need to pay attention when the reverse comes true as well.

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

Huffington Post - For Brands, It's A Small (And Strange) World After All

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CTRL ALT Delete - Weekly Technology And Digital Media Review - CHOM FM #23

Every 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:

One of the most fascinating conferences for digital media is SXSW. Strange that is started out as an indie music conference.

Let's Be Honest: SXSW Is About Innovation in Marketing, not Tech.

This eye-tracking software is going to blow your mind.

App of the week: Secret.

Listen here...

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The Culture Of Fear At Work

Episode #401 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

What is your work environment really like? Are you a leader who must inspire your team? Are you on a team with a leader who is inspiring... or a leader who needs be a lot better at it? Does your team really work well together or is it more like a Dilbert cartoon? Dr. Nick Morgan introduced me to Liane Davey. Davey is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, You First, and someone with a deep expertise in group dynamics, and how true change happens within the company. She is the Vice President of Knightsbridge Leadership Solutions. She enjoys rehabilitating toxic and dysfunctional teams, and is all about performance through team excellence. Her first book, Leadership Solutions, came out in 2007 (she was a co-author). Oh, and by the way, she's a doctor in industrial/organizational psychology. We crack the nut open and dig deep into modern leadership with her. 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 #401.

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What Is The News Doing To Your Brain?

How often do you check a screen to see what's going on in the news?

It's probably a lot more often than you think. Consider your Twitter feed. Consider your Facebook timeline. Consider how many text message alerts you are signed up to receive. The list keeps growing, doesn't it? CNN turned the news into a twenty-four hour cycle, and the Internet pushed it further into real time. Have you ever stopped to wonder just what, exactly, this constant barrage of news and information is doing to our brains and to our lives? Alain de Botton has thought about this. Deeply. If you have never heard of de Botton, there is no time like the present. He writes books and is often described as a modern day philosopher. He writes a lot, and has had enormous success as an author. He writes about everything from love and architecture to work and travel. He recently published a book called, The News - A User's Manual, that looks at how much the news has changed, and how it has become as dominant in our society as religion once was (yes, this is deep stuff). In this fascinating talk at Google, he discusses some of the concepts in his book, while trying to explain how all of this news, everywhere, is impacting us as human beings.

This is an amazingly fascinating and engaging presentation...

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Ads Worth Watching... And Spreading

Some ads are worth watching (again and again). Totally true.

This week, I am attending the TED conference. TED has been working hard to highlight TV ads that are "ideas worth spreading." When I hear people say that they hate advertising, I don't believe them. People hate bad advertising and, unfortunately, a good bulk of the work that comes out of the advertising industry is mediocre at best. If you poke around on YouTube or Facebook, you will discover that people love ads that tell a story. People love ads that make them laugh, think, cry, grow and more. Volumes have been written about what it takes to produce a great spot. Volumes have also been written about the abysmal failure and poor reception that TV ads get. Still, when it works... it just works. Once again, TED has selected ten ads that work. They are worthy of your time and attention. And, if they do the job they are supposed to do, who knows you may just become a customer... a loyal one.

TED 2014's Ads Worth Spreading:

P&G - Thank You Mom.

IBM - A Boy And His Atom.

Guinness - Basketball.

Adobe - Click, Baby, Click!

Google Earth - Saroo Brierly: Homeward Bound.

Dove - Camera Shy.

New Zealand Transport Agency - Mistakes.

Virgin America - Safety Dance.

Honda - Hands.

Norwegian Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund - Let's Save Africa.

Inspired?

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #195

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:

Interviewing the algorithm: How reporting and reverse engineering could build a beat to understand the code that influences us - Nieman Journalism Lab . "This is an important topic. Many of the decisions we're going to face in the coming years will be made by machines, optimizing and ranking our lives and choices. But those algorithms are black boxes, opaque and arcane. How does Facebook know which stories to show you? An algorithm -- and probably not one that serves your needs, but rather, those of Facebook's: getting you to click links, and double-down on already-popular stories, while missing small updates from long-lost friends. If we want to report on the future, we need to understand the decisions these algorithms make." (Alistair for Hugh).

Here's What Happens When The Internet Decides A Newspaper's Front Page - BuzzFeed . "Is crowdsourcing good? Or just pictures of cats all the way down? Editors decide what makes the front page -- but what happens when the popularity of stories on social platforms decides what newspapers should cover? As it turns out, it's not bad." (Alistair for Mitch).

Between two Ferns Director Scott Aukerman on Obama's Comedy Skills - GQ . "Unless you have been living under a fern, you have probably seen Obama's recent comedy/communications coup to promote healthcare.gov . Here's the story of how it happened." (Hugh for Alistair).

Reaching 400K followers on @CBCNews - CBC . "This one is for Canadian history books, with a funny bit of local colour. Way back in 2007, a friend and ex-Montrealer, illustrator/animator, Matt Forsythe, decided that CBC News should have a Twitter feed. He registered @CBCNews, and started posting tweets with links to news items. Eventually CBC mucky-mucks got wind, and were shamed into joining Twitter: Matt, a nice fellow, handed the account over. A few short years (SIX YEARS!! WHAT?!?) later, @CBCNews has 400,000 followers." (Hugh for Mitch).

Move over, small-time Bitcoin exchange startups--Wall Street has arrived - ArsTechnica . "Here's my theory: as fragmented and uncoupled as the general news has become, we still only follow the same stories. If you really want to better understand what is happening in this world, you have dig a little deeper. Stores like this are the ones that we need to be paying attention to. When people think of BitCoin or virtual currency, they tend to think of either the people who are running these businesses into the ground or the wild fluctuations that the currency experiences (is it a bubble or isn't it?). Well, while these more generic and mass media appealing stories block the sun, stuff like this is going on. Now, we're going to have trading bots and high speed trading for BitCoin and other cryptocurrencies and exchanges. In short: things are about to get really crazy over there." (Mitch for Alistair).

No, His Name Is Not Ted - The New York Times . "I begin my annual pilgrimage out West to the TED conference on Monday (it's now being held in Vancouver). I have been going since 2009 (can't believe it has been that long). It's a controversial conference that is constantly being slapped around in the media. I understand why, but it has no bearing on my decision to go. It is the one time a year that I do something (somewhat) selfish for myself. I go out there, I seclude myself from the rest of the world (with the exception of any emergencies) and drown myself in ideas, conversations, learning and my own thoughts. I fill up a notebook with my thoughts, spend time with old friends discussing new challenges and make no qualms about whether it is elitist or if the talks are like infomercials for intellects (I think the price is minor compared to the value and most of the talks inspire me in one way, shape or form). I find most of criticism against TED (and the people who create it) coming from people who don't have an interest in this type of conference or who are simply there to poke holes in it. I'm lucky, as a professional speaker, I get to attend hundreds of events every year. For my dollar, my time and my personal growth, nothing has ever come close to TED (with the exception of the Google Zeitgeist event - which also helps me rethink everything). While this piece takes some shots at TED, it did nothing but get me even more excited for what's to come next week. Can't wait!" (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.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: President Barack Obama from President Barack Obama

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