Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 259

The Marketing Moral Compass

Are marketer's the most loathed human beings on earth?

It is a question worthy of an answer. As a marketing professional, I often wonder where the vocation sits on the list of the most respected and appreciated industries out there. Without any material proof, I'm going to guess it's way down at the bottom of the list, cuddled between the used car salespeople, drug dealers and assorted scumbags of the world. Maybe that's being a little harsh, but our reputations precede us. Marketers have done so many nasty things to society that now require governments and laws to protect the public (think about spam, privacy and telemarketing). But, it is different times and a business' success in marketing has a direct correlation to its financial health and walking the line, as Johnny Cash would put it.

Changing the marketing game.

While too many people try to strike it rich on Facebook and Twitter, the true value of social media is how it acts as a truth serum for brands. Companies that have spent any semblance of time online know this, in a profound way. Just look at any number of consumer reviews (on any site) and it's plain to see: Brands are neither loathed or loved. They are not just purchased or dismissed. What social media has brought is the ability for every business to understand the tiny nuances that make consumers both appreciate or revolt against something. There is a ton of ambiguity (for every one person who can't live without a product, there are five people who consider it a complete waste of time, money and effort). Regardless of these varying opinions, it is clear that there is one component of marketing that offers the opportunity to overcome the negative (without fail): a strong marketing moral compass.

The moral compass of marketing.

You can have a brand that people aren't interested in, but if you're always perceived to be doing the right thing (because you are doing the right thing), this will lessen the potential damage of negativity, while adding layers of comfort to those who are already in love with the business. So, what does your business stand for in relation to your consumers? What types of relationships do you want with your customers? Before you buy that first ad, before you ask for that first email address, before you post that next piece to your Facebook page, spend some serious (and quality) time defining your marketing moral compass.

Ask yourself the right questions.

Most marketers run afoul or try something that inevitably gets them into trouble, because they haven't defined their moral compass of marketing and they have no bearings when presented with opportunities that could wind up messing with their cultural GPS. So, grab a notebook, a cafe au lait and start asking yourself these questions:

How do you want people to feel before, during and after they touch your brand?

What are you willing to do to get attention for your brand?

How important are the relationships that you have with your consumers?

How open, responsive and quick will you be when responding to consumers (positive, negative and neutral feedback)?

What should (and should not) be used in terms of consumer's information? Do you have their permission and do they understand it?

What is the common good that everyone - within the organization - should be working towards?

What will be the measurement of a healthy marketing organization? Will it be by revenue? How many people are employed? What consumers think about your work? Something else?

Is the overriding success of the work going to be the company's needs, the needs of others or something else? 

More questions.

Don't stop there. In answering these questions, more questions (and hopefully better answers) will arise. This work is not meant to be a linear piece of work that ends up in a document, then a vision statement, then posted somewhere on a wall in your office as some kind of finished idea, or a slide in your PowerPoint deck. Your marketing moral compass is an ever-growing and on-going organic embodiment of what you stand for (and what you can't stand). When it is roughly defined and in-line with the personal and corporate values of everyone involved, share it with your team, be open to their candid feedback and input, ensure that it is honestly in-line with the values of the company and the people that you keep. In a sea of brands who are willing to do anything for a click, a like, a follow, a friend, a retweet, a comment, a review, an impression and more, being vigilant about having and embodying a strong marketing moral compass will always keep your business on the straight and narrow. Ultimately, it will also be in the defining moments - like an opportunity to have a business benefit that may not be as good for your consumers, when the metal of your marketing moral compass will meet the road.

Having it fixed, in place and part of the culture will always help you to resolve these moments, and point your business towards the true north.

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for Inc. Magazine called Reboot: Marketing . 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:

Inc. Magazine - What Are You Willing to Do for a Click?

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permission marketing

powerpoint

privacy

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telemarketing

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vision statement

Brands Are Never Prepared For Success

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:

Happy Family Day!

Flappy Bird - easy come... easy go.

Brands are not prepared for massive success. Ever.

Making money on Flappy Bird.

Flappy Bird or Satan?

Ashton Kutcher on Uber.

The collaborative economy.

Uber and surge pricing.

Uber and Miami.

App of the week (not an app): Neil Gaiman reads Green Eggs And Ham.

Listen here...

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ashton kutcher

chom 977 fm

chom fm

collaborative economy

ctrl alt delete

ctrl alt delete with mitch joel

digital media

facebook

family day

flappy bird

green eggs and ham

guest contributor

heather backman

montreal radio

morning show

mornings rock with terry and heather b

neil gaiman

neil gaiman green eggs and ham

radio segment

radio station

social media

soundcloud

technology

terry dimonte

uber

uber surge pricing

Humanizing Brands With Stories And Comedy

Episode #396 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Welcome to episode #396 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. He's been on Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and more. His name is Tim Washer and he's currently working on social media for Cisco. He's one of the funniest people that I know... and one of the sharpest minds in digital marketing. Beyond being a Webby-nominated video producer and corporate humorist, Tim also worked on IBM's amazing Smarter Planet campaign and works as a keynote speaker and event emcee as well. What makes him so fascinating is how he blends comedy, social media, video production and storytelling to humanize brands. He's an all-around great guy and whenever we're together (which isn't often enough!), I always learn a ton about writing and storytelling. I think you will as well. 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 #396.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #190

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:

Should A Robot Decide When To Kill? - The Verge . "I grew up reading Asimov 's Laws of Robotics . Turns out that wasn't escapism -- it was just preparation. This rather chilling Verge piece on DARPA 's autonomous soldiers paint a robotized future as inevitable. 'Either we're going to decide not to do this, and have an international agreement not to do it, or it's going to happen.' Rather than 'A robot must not harm a human' we get the more loophole-ready, 'A robot must always follow a human operator's intent, for example, while simultaneously guarding against any failure that could cause an operator to lose control.'  Yikes." (Alistair for Hugh).

Here's the leaked Uber email to drivers, showing it's finally taking background checks seriously - Pando Daily . "One of the biggest economic shifts this century comes from the removal of the friction that justifies middlemen. From travel agencies to parking meters, everything's going digital. AirBnB , Uber , Lyft , even white-label airlines are getting in on the action. The honeymoon, however, may be over. Nearly every one of them is under scrutiny for predatory pricing, liability claims, and mis-set expectations. P2P rideshare startup Lyft recently announced insurance, but the real story is Uber, which sent a letter to drivers about background checks. Up next? I'm betting it's unionization. What's good for the management goose is good for the employee gander." (Alistair for Mitch).

Our quantum problem - Aeon Magazine . "The head-scratching problems with Quantum Theory." (Hugh for Alistair).

Spotify: how a busy songwriter you've never heard of makes it work for him - The Guardian . "Want to hear a song about mayonnaise? Or, Brisbane? Or, door-handles? Matt Farley churns them out at an amazing pace, and puts them all on Spotify . I originally heard about Matt Farley on the podcast TLDR ." (Hugh for Mitch).

What Brands in Sochi Are Doing for Security May Surprise You - AdWeek . "Part of the advertising business is schmoozing clients. That's a lie. It's a big part of every business. So, when the Olympics roll around, brands see an amazing opportunity to really work their networks and lock in some solid business opportunities while taking in the event, wining, dining and who knows what else? The problem is that some places aren't that safe. There has been lots of concern over the safety at the winter Olympics. It's not something you read about often, but this is what brands are doing to ensure that their guests have a blast... in a different kind of way." (Mitch for Alistair).

Please Click On Our Website's Banner Ads - The Onion . "This is one of those pieces that is so funny because of how true and sad it is. It's from The Onion , so you know it's satire of the highest form. It's also true for just about any traditional publisher pimping for clicks, while trying to amp up their banner advertising inventory. Special thanks to Michael Lautman for shooting it my way on Twitter ." (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

aeon magazine

airbnb

alistair croll

bitcurrent

book a futurists manifesto

complete web monitoring

darpa

facebook

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

isaac asimov

laws of robotics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

lyft

managing bandwidth

matt farley

media hacks

michael lautman

pando daily

pressbooks

quantum theory

sochi

social media

solve for interesting

spotify

the guardian

the onion

the verge

uber

winter olympics

year one labs

Netflix And The Future Of Television

Netflix has done what Blockbuster could not do. But it's about much more than a streaming technology.

TV has become a fascinating new platform. Yup, it's not the same old TV most new media pundits tend to trash in presentations. Netflix is a huge part of this shift, and don't think that Twitter's constant attention and sidling up on TV isn't something worth taking notice of as well. From streaming and premium services to binge-watching and on-demand services, the future of television (and how it converges across all screens and platforms) is something to pay a lot more attention to. Over at The New Yorker, veteran journalist, Ken Auletta spends a massive amount of time dissecting and thinking about communications and media in his regular column, (which he has been writing since 1993). Along with that, Auletta is also known for his business books, Googled - The End of the World As We Know It, Backstory - Inside the Business of News, World War 3.0 - Microsoft and Its Enemies and many more. Recently, Auletta appeared on Charlie Rose to discuss his article, Outside The Box - Netflix And The Future of Television.

So, will the same things that happened to music, print media and more happen to television as well? Watch this to find out...

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binge watching

blockbuster

charlie rose

communications

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on demand services

outside the box

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streaming

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television

the new yorker

tv

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world war 3

What Is The Point Of A Website In 2014?

It's not all about what the mobile experience will be about.

The one screen world. It's a concept often written about in these posts and it's an ideology that was created to force brands to start thinking about true customer-centricity instead of business and brand-driven silos (also check out my second business book, CTRL ALT Delete). We live in a world where the only screen that matters is the screen that is in front of me. We live in a world where screens are here, there and everywhere. They are in the palms of our hands, on our wrists, on our glasses, on our computers, and push out many forms of information and entertainment to us in a myriad of ways. Consumers don't think about it any more. Screens are everywhere (and, if they aren't there yet, they will be soon). Billions upon billions of connected people and connected devices. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface on what this all means, and how it changes the dynamics of our lives, of business and the brands that need to stay afloat.

Still, don't forget about your website.

It may sound cliché, but we live in a world where brands are increasingly leaving the information, data capture and power of building the direct relationship to chance or to someone else. We are seeing an increase in brands leaving their true engagement to social media (be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube or beyond). They are letting these online social networks do the heavy lifting of nurturing the brand narrative, while they focus on building mobile apps and other ways to connect. What we're beginning to see (in a post-PC and post-Web browser world) is a knowing abandonment of the website, instead of re-imagining it to become the powerful engine of business that it truly can be.

What is the point of a website in 2014?

That is the question. If you go back in time (and we're talking within this past decade), most companies used their websites in two way:

To provide a level of information.

To sell their wares.

Breaking that down a little bit more, brands used the Internet as a way to create more interactive brochures of their wares, or as a way to sell directly to their consumers. Nobody is going to argue that these still act as important functions in the business world, but there is something more. If advertising is a vertical function within the marketing department and the marketing department acts as its own vertical within the organization, we're missing the bigger business opportunity and, with it, the biggest opportunity in developing a stronger brand.

Advertising is a vertical, but marketing becomes horizontal.

If you think about marketing in its purest form (the engines of developing and optimizing the product, it's pricing models, how it is distributed - in both physical and virtual formats - and how it is promoted), we can't deny that the role of marketing must adapt to meet the inter-connectedness of the world. In short, marketing has to move from a vertical within the organization into a horizontal functional that goes across the organization. Marketing, clearly, needs to touch everything. If the websites can think, act and demonstrate this variance, what we have is a new model of Web efficiency. It's also the type of function that can't be done efficiently on mobile (yet, but that could be changing).

What a Web of efficiency can look like.

Instead of letting the website wither on the vine, as the brand focuses on social media, content marketing, mobile apps and beyond, re-focus the website as the digital embodiment of the brand. In a world of micro-content and real-time marketing, this seems like the logical step for brands to take (but most are not). What is the first true brand impression that people receive? Even in a world where word of mouth has digitized with global reach, most people looking for anything will still default to some form of search prior to purchase (and, we're even seeing layers of data to support that this is happening with "impulse buy" products as well). Whether it's a Google search box or a post on Facebook, consumers turn to digital channels to better understand a product and/or service. This is nothing new. It's been happening for close to twenty years, at this point. The difference is that brands can now use their websites as an engine to change the sales funnel and build better marketing interactions. It's hard work, but it can be done. My close friend and colleague, Avinash Kaushik (Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google and the author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0) best defines this by understanding what a true conversion is. Most brands define "success" or a "conversion" if a customer buys from them or calls for an appointment. This zero-sum race to a conversion is not the actual path to purchase for consumers (we know this, and it's basic). Still, we build these massive websites, with hefty investments with that being the sole focus. What Avinash says is that we need to break this up. We need to think about all of the things consumers want on their way to make the purchase, and to quantify each of these steps as micro-conversions. This is when things start getting exciting. Maybe a consumer watches a video, signs up for an e-newsletter, likes your brand on Facebook, etc... each one of the touch points can (and should) be assigned a micro-conversion, with a scoring system attached to it (you can use points, dollar amounts, whatever). Using simple (and free) analytics, this information can easily be tracked, and then turned into a more realistic sales funnel that depicts both a path to purchase, and can validate just how good your creative and content is (or how poorly it is performing). This is all about efficiency and cutting the fat. It's not about adding more stuff.

... And there is so much...

Multivariate testing, landing pages, leveraging targeted keywords to see what drives people where, and how engaged they become are just the tip of the iceberg. We haven't even begun to think about eCRM, creating a testing and learning environment, getting smarter about where things go and how they persuade the path to purchase... and beyond. It's enough to make your head spin. And, that's the point. It's 2014, and most websites still want you to read and/or buy, instead of being that true digital embodiment of the brand. So, if all your website does is sell or inform, it seems easy enough to leave it behind and let the online social networks do this work (because that is where people are congregated and connected), or to do this on a mobile app (because that is where people are, increasingly, grabbing or doing this type of stuff). What happens is that a massive chasm of business opportunity gets lost because brands live in dogma. Their old ways of doing things. The thing about these web engines of efficiency is that it's not easy to do. You can't just hire an agency to build you something. It's a collaborative  process that is hard and requires a different way of operating (both internally and externally). It requires a brand to re-think how they get new customers and keep old ones. And, while this may sound scary, it also provides one of the biggest opportunities to truly grow a business. It's (sadly) something that most brands are dismissing because of the classic shiny, bright objects that are out there or their belief that this new way of thinking is risky. This is isn't about risk. It's about efficiency. It's about actually looking at how people buy and making everything (from you advertising to your content) work for you, instead of giving you more work to do.

Your website is - and could well be - the true heart of the soul of your brand, it just takes the courage to accept it and the hard work to do it.   

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It's All Just Dumb Luck

Selling a lot of books is very hard. Making a video go viral is very hard. Creating a billion dollar company is very hard.

It's a story that I will never forget. Back in 2008, I was prepping the release of my first business book (Six Pixels of Separation). I was very excited because the book was going to be the lead business title for Grand Central Publishing - which is a part of the largest book publishing company in the world (Hachette Book Group) - and the senior-most executive at the publishing house wanted to meet with me. I was excited. I was nervous. If you could close your eyes and imagine what the head editor of the largest book publisher in the world might look like, you would have the right visual of this powerful, smart and compelling individual. A beautiful corner office with a view, that is decorated with awards, celebrity author paraphernalia, photos of this individual with Presidents, royalty and more. As we sat down on the couch for a coffee, they leaned in and quietly said, "Mitch... I love your book. We all love your book. It's a fascinating space and you have captured it perfectly. We are thrilled that we're publishing it and look forward to its success..." and then there was a long pause. They finished the sentence with: "now, all we need is lightning in a bottle."

Wait. What?  

Write a book that one of the world's most esteemed editors loves, get signed to a global deal by one of the largest book publishers in the world, get to be the lead title for their back to school season, and it's all going to be dependant on how lucky we get? It's a situation that I have known and dealt with for decades. Back in my music industry days, I would face this story on a weekly basis. A band would release an amazing album on one of the major record labels, that was supported with a ton of marketing, featured a great producer, with an amazing tour to come, and it would be crickets and tumbleweeds in terms of record sales, seats sold and general media interest. I could rattle off hundreds of bands who should have been huge from the eighties and nineties while others (some might even argue less-qualified) got the accolades, attention, fame, sex, drugs and well, you know.

In the end, is it all about luck?

I am thinking about luck a lot lately. I'm not the only one. Just yesterday, I saw two really interesting articles on Mashable about Facebook (titled: 'It Was Just the Dumbest Luck' -- Facebook's First Employees Look Back) and the meteoric rise of the most frustrating game, Flappy Bird (titled: How 'Flappy Bird' Went From Obscurity to No. 1 App).

Check out these quotes...

Ezra Callahan was Facebook's sixth employee. Here's what he says about it: "It's humbling to know I was part of something that became such a phenomenon around the world. Every day, I recognize how it was just the dumbest luck in the world to have been in the right place at the right time." 

Doug Nguyen is the indie developer who created Flappy Bird. He never did any type of marketing or advertising for the game and simply said, "The Popularity could be my luck."

Is it just all dumb luck?

You can imagine how many articles, blog posts and book have been written on the subject of luck. I've often referred to this "secret sauce" that seems to have no known recipe in the success of things of other stuff. We would like to think that true success happens when someone can match passion, intellect, dedication and effort against a cause. We would like to think that if you just put your nose against the grindstone, something is going to give. We don't want to believe in something "other" (and no, I'm not talking about any religious figures here). Still, when you speak to those we would consider the best of the best, they often default to some type of comment about just how lucky they got. Sure, go ahead and dump all of the catchy quotes below about how a lot of hard work makes people lucky, I still find it fascinating how there are always these random forces at play. The things that make one video go viral and another, equally compelling piece, be a dud. It feels like luck usually does have something to do with it, regardless of what the data jocks tell us and the puritan hard workers. 

So, do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?

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Some Cheez-its, A Mountain Dew, A Snickers Bar... And A Kindle

It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke, but this is no laughing matter.

As Amazon continues to grow, expand and diversify itself as one of the largest retailers and technology service providers in the world, attention is always paid when the virtual store does something physical. Every so often, rumors crop-up that the online retailer (that has a market cap of over $157 billion) is about to open up physical retail locations or is providing delivery lockers (known as Amazon Locker) or some other unique way to change the retail experience. It's the kind of news that, typically, sends shock waves through the retail and technology landscape. Some rumors are blatantly false, others are true and some of them don't work out so well. What makes Amazon so fascinating (and dangerous to their competitors), is their desire to disrupt, try and change the shopper's status quo. So, when last year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) rolled into Las Vegas, many were surprised and intrigued by Amazon's presence.

It's not what you think.

They didn't have a typical booth on the trade show floor. They didn't engage with a celebrity tie-in for a major product launch. They didn't even throw a wild party at one of the trendy casino nightclubs, in the hopes of getting some b-list reality television star to talk about them to TMZ. Instead, they set up a Kindle vending machine inside the Las Vegas airport (near the ATM and soda pop). You may be thinking to yourself that this is nothing new. Apple, Best Buy and others have all deployed vending machines that sell electronics over the past several years. For some consumers, it's hard to imagine buying a $250 pair of headphones the same way that you buy a bag of chips on the way to catch a flight, but the technology of these machines has advanced to the stage when these more expensive and complex sales can be done without human intervention and on-the-go.

There could be something more going on here.

Amazon has a lot of muscle. Both in terms of brand affinity and a war chest to experiment with new ways of retailing. It's easy to dismiss this Kindle vending machine as simply another parlor trick. It feels like Kindles are just the beginning of this story. Vending machines could well be the perfect way in which Amazon can be on (almost) every corner of the world. They are a very cost-effective way to grow a retail presence, without the traditional infrastructure that a retail chain must endure (long leaseholds, landlords, square footage negotiations, employees, overhead, etc...). In fact, vending machines are becoming as hip and as cool as pop-up stores (if you can imagine that!). They offer a nice surprise to potential consumers who are either sitting around or passing through a public space, and are used to nothing but Pop Tarts and stale peanuts.

Retail everywhere.

This isn't about Kindle Fire tablets or Kindle Paperwhite readers. It's not about the accessories, either. This is about Amazon engaging in a "retail everywhere" strategy that the traditional retailers need to think deeply about. Amazon has optimized the online shopping experience - from Web browser to smartphone. 1-click ordering and Amazon Prime have only pushed their success to a level of near-dominance. What seems like a simple PR play of plopping vending machines in areas that may garner them some media attention, may be something much more. What we're really seeing is another step in Amazon's desire to ensure that if a consumer needs to buy something... anything... they're doing it from Amazon. What makes this even more interesting is thinking about what this can all lead to. At the SC Business Fair 2014, which took place last month in Japan, Toshiba previewed a digital signage system called, Smartphone-linked Signage, that uses Bluetooth low energy wireless technology to link digital signs with smartphones. This creates an ability to send unique offers that can be controlled and optimized by the consumer on their mobile device. What this means, is that if multiple people are staring at the same display, they may be receiving different offers or forms of content. Suddenly, you can start seeing how the convergence of digital and physical retailing can create an entirely new paradigm.

When Amazon knows all.

Right now, these vending machines will sell you an e-reader. It's simple enough. Tomorrow they could easily be linked to your Amazon account. They could easily present you with recommendations based on your historical purchases that you could buy on the spot and easily decide if you would like to get it right there or have it shipped via Amazon Prime to your front door. These vending machines could interact with your smartphone and/or tablet to create a much richer shopping experience and, suddenly, everything we always thought we knew about what a vending machine is (and can do) gets completely upended. That may seem lofty or off too much into the future, but the technology exists. It's a retail format that big brands are playing with. It's an additional direct relationship that a brand can have with a consumer.

Who knew that the future of big retail may come be coming from these little vending machines?     

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 - Would You Buy From a Kindle Vending Machine?

Tags:

1 click ordering

amazon

amazon kindle

amazon kindle vending machine

amazon lockers

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What Does A Ten Year Old Facebook Look Like?

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:

Facebook celebrates their 10th Anniversary.

Princeton says Facebook will be rendered useless soon.

Facebook responds by proving that Princeton will be rendered useless soon.

Facebook's big turnaround.

Facebook launches Paper tomorrow.

Facebook builds a diversification of products.

When will updates be done is seamless/invisible way?

App of the week: Flappy Bird.

Listen here...

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What Will Be Your Body Of Work?

Episode #395 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

What do you do for a living? How many times have you been asked that question? If you don't have a nine-to-five job, but are currently trying to build a life that includes some semblance of meaningful work, that question gets even more difficult to answer. It's less about the work that you do, the community that you serve and how you connect with people online and much more about how all of these pieces now come together to create a meaningful life. Few understand the intricacies of this like Pamela Slim. In 2005, she started the Escape From Cubicle Nation blog that quickly spawned a massive bestselling business book of the same name. The award-winning author, business coach, speaker and martial artist (yes, don't mess with her!), recently released her second book, Body Of Work, that is less of a book and much of a workbook around prodding people to question their work and to find points of connection that will - hopefully - help them define, develop and nurture a career that is more meaningful. This ability to understand and develop one's own story is the crux of Body Of Work. It's an important read. 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 #395.

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