Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 271

What Is An Entrepreneur?

It's a term that so many people are struggling with in this day and age.

This week is small business week. With that comes all sorts of staggering information about how important small business is to our economy:

More than 99% of Ontario's businesses are small and medium-sized (under 500 employees).

More than 97% of Ontario's employer businesses were small-sized with fewer than 100 employees.

More than 2.8 million Ontarians worked for small and medium enterprises.

Large enterprises employed almost 2.7 million individuals.

We tend to look at the massive brands and organizations as some kind of lighthouse of power when, in reality, we would not have much of an economy were it not for the small business owners. The challenge is that we live in a day and age when a business (like Instagram) can have under ten employees, minimal (if any) revenue, and then be sold for one billion dollars (in this case, it was to Facebook). So, is Instagram a small business? Or do we need to take the concept of a startup and separate it from the flock, because the spirit of a startup is so foundationally different from an individual who is more than happy to make enough less money (with as little stress as possible) and wants to run a business that would never be worth a billion dollars.

So, if you're limiting your income and growth potential on purpose, can you still be considered an entrepreneur?

I have set a very clear definition of what an entrepreneur is: an entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for the industry that they serve that has yet to exist, and is willing to take the risk to prove their vision by executing and running a business around it. Some would argue that this definition is too shallow. Some would argue that many small business owners should not even be considered entrepreneurs. So might even argue that children of entrepreneurs taking over a family business would be considered entrepreneurs too (I'm iffy on this one). This week, I was invited to take part in a live television panel on TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin. The title of the show was called, Small Business In A Big Box World. The segment lasts about thirty minutes, and I'm hopeful that I did us all proud. There was some heavy back and forth challenges and debates.

So, would you consider certain small business owners entrepreneurs? I would. Here's why...

Also, in cased you missed it, here's my CTRL ALT Delete solo session on The Agenda with Steve Paikin from a few months back...

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London Calling

CTRL ALT Delete (the book) is coming to the UK in November 2013.

Overseas trips tend to be few and far between for me. When I am in Europe, it is typically for a private corporate event. I am thrilled to let you all know that I will be in London for two events that are open to the public:

Monday, November 4th: the London Bloggers Meetup will be hosting: Life in a Digital World with Mitch Joel. The event will be held at Google's UK office and will be starting at 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. It will be a live Q&A session where nothing will be off limits (that's a lie). David Keene (Head of Enterprise Marketing for Google) will also be on hand, if there are any questions on what Google is up to. It's open to all, but space is limited.

Tuesday, November 5th: Connections EMEA (hosted by ExactTarget) will be taking place at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel. This event is not free, but it features a stellar-line-up of marketing experts including JP Rangaswami (who is the Chief Scientist at Salesforce.com as well as the blogger behind Confused Of Calcutta - which I love dearly) and many others. You can check out the agenda here: Connections EMEA 2013. This event is my main reason for being in the UK. but the London Bloggers Meetup was kind enough to bold something on the night before.

If you are in and around the neighborhood, please come down.

I am really excited about this trip and thrilled that the good people at ExactTarget are bringing me across the pond. If you would like to meet-up at either of those events, I'll be the tall, bald dude, dressed in black. I'm hoping that I can connect with as many people as possible from the Six Pixels of Separation community while in London.

See you in London! 

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Future iPads, Samsung's Aggressive Advertising And A Better Calendar App For Your iPhone

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: What the next iPad from Apple might be (we'll know more tomorrow), how aggressive and powerful the Samsung advertising has become and Calendars 5 - a great alternative calendar app, if you're not loving the native one from the iOS.

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Reddit, Permission And Internet Culture

Episode #380 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Welcome to episode #380 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. I have been hearing about the new business book, Without Their Permission, for well over a year. Alexis Ohanian and I share the same publisher and editor (Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group). Alexis is one of the most impressive young people you will ever meet. He is the co-founder of Reddit, Hipmunk and more. He's a passionate startup guy and investor (deeply rooted with Y Combinator) and his new book is all about using the Web for good and using the Web to build a business. The book lives up to its hype (because if it didn't, he would get mauled on Reddit ;). That hasn't happened so far. Alexis is a very passionate individual who really believes that the Internet allows all of us to reach potentials that have never before been imaginable. It was a please to connect with him. 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 #380.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #174

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:

Inside 23AndMe Founder Anne Wojcicki's $99 DNA Revolution - Fast Company . "A few years ago, I interviewed Anne Wojcicki about her fledgling startup. We bonded over the fact that neither of us had cavities until relatively late in life. I'm a user of the service, and a few months later, I filled out a 23andMe survey on whether I had cavities, helping the company point scientists at genes that might be tied to tooth decay. Later, with the arrival of my daughter, we sequenced her, my wife, and my mother. The results were amazing (and possibly life-saving.) I wrote about it , and got some grief for my actions. It reminded me of just how controversial this stuff is. Now, Fast Company 's Elizabeth Murphy has updated things, and it's a good read. 23andMe could save your life, and permanently change medicine. Which means it's a pretty polarizing subject." (Alistair for Hugh).

Hackers Meet Biology: Bio-Renaissance or the Makings of a Killer? - Casey Research . "Now, let's talk about biohacking. What happens when try-it-and-see' Maker mentality hits Silicon Valley's can-do attitude? Plenty. It's either the new frontier, or the first pages of a Michael Crichton novel, depending on who you ask. In this Casey Research piece by Doug Hornig -- with a foreword by chief analyst, Alex Daley -- you'll learn more than you thought you needed to know. A friend of mine whose wife has made more synthetic biology investments than anyone right now bemoans the fact that investors think biohacking is just 'wet software', cautioning that DNA is vastly different and we stretch such analogies as 'coding life' beyond their breaking point. Read, and be a little afraid." (Alistair for Mitch).

Why mathematicians make great comedy writers - Chortle . "Apparently The Simpsons writing team has been filled with mathematicians from the beginning of the show. Simon Singh explores the relationship between Simpson giggle and complex math. r d r r."  (Hugh for Alistair).

Why Can't a Congressman Be More Like a Mayor? - Bloomberg . "Well, the US government shutdown is over. As a columnist for the Globe & Mail quipped: 'That was fun! Let's do it again in the New Year.' Margaret Carlson muses on the distance between congressmen and reality, and why a city's government could never get away with the kind of behavior we've seen in Washington." (Hugh for Mitch).

Snapchat admits to handing unopened 'snaps' to US law enforcement - The Guardian . "24 hours a day. Seven days a week. 365 days a year. They are watching you. We want to think that we have a semblance of privacy. We don't. Everything we do is being being transmitted and stored somewhere, right? I find it amazingly fascinating that companies like Google and Facebook take so much heat from the public whenever they attempt to update or address their terms of service, and yet this craziness over at Snapchat was hardly a ripple in the zeitgeist. I thought that snaps weren't stored anywhere and that the people behind Snapchat didn't have access to these pictures. That's not true. I never believed that. Now, it's clear that the content we're pumping through Snapchat is accessible - in some way, shape or form... and it's accessible to the government too." (Mitch for Alistair).

7 Ways to Be Insufferable on Facebook - The Huffington Post . "There are days that I wish I had the courage to delete my Facebook account. The truth is that I don't know how to best use it and I wind up seeing things from people I like... and it winds up making me like them a whole lot less. I hate judging people. I hate gossiping. It feels like this is all that Facebook is for me. I'm not sure why. A close friend sent me this link in relation to a mutual friend and how they poorly manage their Facebook page (you'll understand it more when you read this article). The truth is, I see of lot of myself in these examples and... it really does sicken 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:

23andme

alex daley

alistair croll

anne wojcicki

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bitcurrent

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casey research

chortle

complete web monitoring

doug hornig

facebook

fast company

gigaom

globe and mail

google

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

librivox

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link exchange

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managing bandwidth

margaret carlson

media hacks

michael crichton

pressbooks

simon singh

snapchat

social media

solve for interesting

the guardian

the huffington post

the simpsons

twitter

year one labs

Underdogs, Misfits, And The Art Of Battling Giants

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know that Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out.

His new book is called, David And Goliath. And, as usual, it is getting a lot of worthy attention. Everybody in business either has it, is reading it or wants it. Ahh, to be Malcolm Gladwell (a girl can dream). This past week, he spent some time at the Googleplex in Mountain View. What makes this video fascinating, is that it's not standard Gladwell-fare of him presenting his stories. It's a fireside chat with some great insight and it's well-worth your time...

Talks At Google - Malcolm Gladwell: "David and Goliath".

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5 Simple Ways To Get More Creative, Inspired And Smarter Every Day

Stop complaining about email.

We all get too much email. Most of the time it's about things that should probably be discussed in person (or over the phone) or it's spam. The truth is that the inbox continues to be a great way to get more creative, inspired and smarter every day. I've written about this before: I still love subscribing to a slew of great e-newsletters, but there is only a handful that I simply can't wait to read, or I leave theme in my inbox until I get through them. It's a high bar, but these five deliver with each and every email.

5 e-newsletter that will help you be more creative, inspired and smarter:

James Altucher Insider's List . For my dollar, I think James Altucher is one of the best bloggers out there. He writes about inspiration, motivation, spirituality, finance, and entrepreneurship. He's honest. So honest, that you will often find yourself wondering where he finds the courage to be so honest. The amazing thing about Altucher is that his email offers up much more content than he publishes on his blog, and every one is worth the read for a myriad of reasons.

First Look Access . I have been on a Steven Pressfield kick for a long while. Recently, I signed up for his e-newsletter called, First Look Access, and it has been incredible. It is chock full of deep thinking about the habit of writing and the projects that he is working on. As the author of The War Of Art, Do The Work and more, I can promise you that even if you're not a writer, the content is transferable to everything that you do in your daily work routine. 

Seth Godin. Unless this is your first time here, you know that I am a massive fan of all things Seth Godin (did you think that I am bald because of Mother Nature's cruelty alone?). Godin blogs daily, and having his posts pop up in my inbox every morning, provides a quick jolt of business, leadership, marketing and human motivation. Subscribe to his feed, so that you never miss a moment.

Media REDEF . I have no idea how Jason Hirschhorn does it - each and every day. You could spend hours scouring blogs, Twitter and Facebook for amazing links about media, technology and pop culture only to discover that Hirschhorn has already done all of the heavy lifting (and more) for you. In short, you could be offline forever and simply subscribe to Media REDEF, and you would have missed absolutely nothing. Bonus: because he has a background in the music industry, he also combines links from that fascinating industry as well. It's gold... or multiple times platinum (if you're into music industry jargon).

Quartz . They call themselves "a digitally native news outlet for the new global economy." I love the news. When I'm in a hotel room (which is often), CNN is on all of the time. When I'm on a plane, I'll tear through 2-4 newspapers. Yes, I'm an infovore. Still, I think that what Quartz pulls together in their Daily Brief will keep you totally informed about what's in the news coupled with some interesting curated links from around the globe. So, if you don't have time to watch, listen or read the news, this one keeps you in the zone where you will know enough about the world to be dangerous in a cocktail conversation at the local chamber of commerce.

Yes. it's a diverse group. What are your must-reads from the Web?

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seth godin

spam

spirituality

steven pressfield

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writing

The Merits Of Reading A Book

What was the last book that you read?

I buy new books all day. Literally. I read most of my book on my iPhone using the Kindle, iBooks or Kobo app (but, mostly Kindle). I haven't been reading enough books this year. I used to read - on average - about a book a week. I think I have only read a handful of books this year. Sadly. Still, I find myself reading all of the time. Tweets on Twitter, Facebook status updates, e-newsletters, articles online, blog posts, magazine articles, newspaper articles (remember those) and more. Still an infovore, but my consumption of books has not been at a personal level of satisfaction.

Moving forward.

Recognizing this flaw in my personal development, I've made an active push to read more books in the past few months. I even have physical books lying around my offices, by my bed and even in my knapsack. Book reading is an important part of what makes me grow. I know this. Still, this past year I got lost in less meaningful pieces of content. Yes, less meaningful. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but as amazing as an article might be or as enjoyable as it can be to spend a lunch hour scrolling through Facebook and Twitter, I can't help but feeling like all content (outside of book reading) leaves me as hollow as a meal at a fast food restaurant. It feels like the right thing at the time, but there is nothing but regret and the desire for a more substantive meal shortly thereafter.

Diving deep into a book.

Last week, I finished reading Steven Pressfield's latest book, The Authentic Swing. The thing about Pressfield (and his books) is that he forces you to focus and dive deep on the topic of writing and getting the words out of you. For me (and anyone else with a passion for writing), it's inspiring. Still, that's first-level on what happens when you read a good book. It's much more about focus. A book allows you to shut-out the real-time Web, the beeps, the alerts, the distractions and more that continuously drive us away from the things that we really need to focus on. Pressfield calls everything but doing the work that we're supposed to do "the resistance." Never has there been a tool to seduce the resistance more than the Internet. Books take you away from that. Writing notes and adding perspective to the books that you're reading do that too. Sadly, I got away from that.

I once was lost...

I'm not done with Twitter or reading blog posts or articles in The New Yorker, but I am done with those resources being the primary destination. Books first. Everything else flows after that. I don't know about you, but the more books that I read, the more creative and strategic solutions my brain can come up with. We live in a world where content is short, fast and free. Perhaps this is more a "stop and smell the roses" type of blog post. Regardless, the merits that are derived from spending the time, energy and effort of reading a full book (cover to cover) is something that is easily lost in our fast food content culture.

Interested in fine dining? Try reading more books. I'm going to. Join me.

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Growth Hacker Marketing And The Rise Of Engineers In Marketing

If you're a brand and you don't believe in advertising, what do you do?

The default position is to use social media. Create real interactions with real human beings. To be useful. To create content that makes a brand more likeable. Let's face it, there are so many brands on social media, that's it somewhat hard and ambiguous to say which ones are truly being effective. There isn't (nor should there be) a common or unified metric to define success in these channels, and most brands may be investing heavily (in terms of money) but haven't done the long, hard work of defining what the end-game should be. In the Marketing Charts news item, Too Many Companies On Social Media? Almost Half Say Yes, they state: "Within the US, almost half - 47.1% - of respondents who had been active on any type of social media in the previous 6 months indicated some level of agreement," that they had "negative attitudes to social media marketing."

Do you know what that means?

Marketers are being annoying (once again). And yet, brands like Uber, AirBnB, Dropbox, Instagram and many more Silicon Valley startup darlings have built magnificent and defendable brands without any of the traditional advertising fare and relying only on word of mouth within the social media channels as a form of awareness and validation. It would lead some traditional marketing practitioners to wonder if these brands have uncovered the true secret to viral marketing, or if there is something much more substantive underneath the hood? There has been a lot of attention on the idea of Growth Hacking. Some call it Growth Hacker Marketing (and it's the title of Ryan Holiday's latest business book, Growth Hacker Marketing, as well). These Growth Hackers are engineers, coders and entrepreneurs who don't know (or follow) the traditional marketing path (because it's not something they have studied or practiced). They don't sit in the marketing department or have optics into the CMO's office. Instead, these people spend their entire day testing acquisition strategies and leveraging technologies like split A/B testing, web analytics and social listening tools to get people to try, share and loyally use their products and services. There is the infamous story of how Hotmail gained fame and fortune with their free email service by dropping the line, "P.S.: I love you. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail," into every note that went through their digital mail system.

Will data trump gut?

In a marketing world of real-time bidding, programmatic buying and more automation tools than you can shake a TV ad at, it would be clever to state that engineers and data are can easily overthrow an advertising system that is archaic, in a world where we understand human nature and what humans are doing online in ways most of us could never have imagined. Brands enter into the social media fray as a way to build community, conversation and connect with influencers with this military-like mentality that every media channels must be conquered and infiltrated with their marketing message or brand dilution will set in. In the same breath, it's hard to argue that the 22-year-old engineers who are Growth Hacking aren't the next generation of where the marketing industry is headed.

Pushing the envelope.

Technology has a way of turning professionals into quibbling toddlers. Human beings resist and fear change, and yet we push technology to unimaginable lengths. The truth is that there has never been a more profound time in the history of marketing to be a professional in this industry. In the next half-decade we are going to see a dazzling amount of new technology, channels, data and opportunities for brands to make themselves truly relevant to consumers. We have moved from advertising as an engine of attention, to content as an engine to engage, to context as an engine to personalize and optimize. With this, we're already seeing a more sophisticated consumer that understands both their role as a consumer and what technology does to make them more connected, informed and empowered. Growth Hacker Marketing is a new name for an old marketing strategy: customer acquisition. The true innovation in this field comes from the low-cost, no-barrier-to-entry to try, iterate, optimize and maximize the outcome. That's the scary part, if you're an advertising agency that really just sells ads (even if they are digital ads). The ante has been upped for marketers. This is a good thing. A brand new opportunity.

The better question is this: will these Growth Hackers even have an interest in working for the advertising agencies?

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ryan holiday

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uber

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web analytics

word of mouth

Fake Traffic, Bots And Faker Websites

Fraud is everywhere. Wake up.

When I was younger (in a pre-Internet world), there was a dirty little secret about newspapers and magazines. The publishers could tell you whatever they wanted about circulation, distribution or pass-along metrics, but it was hard to hide the fact that if you ever pulled your car into the back of their printing facilities, you would often find hundreds and thousands (and maybe more) copies of their publications by the trash bin and/or recycling bin. Some advertiser paid for those eyeballs. They paid for an ad that would never been seen. Circulation and distribution has long been a subject of contention between brands, media companies and the publishers. So much so that circulation audits were (and still are) big business. In short, brands are looking for a way to shorten the chasm between what the publishers claim and what the audience really sees.

Digital and Web analytics put this issue to rest. Right?

Wrong. In fact, the same problems that existed in the traditional publishing realm have been exasperated online. You would not think that this is the case, but it is. What we have here is the multiplier effect. So many websites, publishers and networks that it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff if you're a brand with millions of dollars to spend and the desire to spread a message far and wide. Back in the early nineties, when the Internet was first commercialized, it was easy to bulk up traffic, increase pageviews or even generate clickthroughs on banner advertising. Yes, it was as easy to buy traffic back then, as it is to buy Facebook friends and Twitter followers today. We turn to organizations like the IAB to help create standardization for advertising formats and beyond, but what about the legitimacy of where these ads are shown? Everyone is on the take. As sad and dire as that may sound.

Do we need a Better Business Bureau for the Internet?   

I hate thinking about regulating something as glorious as the Internet, but I'll urge you to read the AdWeek article, The Amount of Questionable Online Traffic Will Blow Your Mind. "During a recent interview, online ad veteran Wenda Millard, president of Medialink, made the bold claim that a quarter of the online ad market is fraudulent. 'What we have found is the devaluation of digital media is causing us to lose about 25 percent of the roughly $30 billion that is being spent,' she reported. 'It's stolen [ad revenue].' In defining fraud, Millard lumped together piracy, nonviewable ads, ads stacked on top of one another, inappropriate content and, of course, deliberate malicious behavior, in her analysis. 'In most people's wildest dreams, they wouldn't imagine how much [questionable traffic] there is,' she says. 'People should be very, very worried.'"

So, how do you feel now?

We try to be these loyal advocates for digital marketing. We try to convince brands that web analytics shall set you free. That digital provides us with one of the most amazing opportunities in advertising that our industry has ever seen... and it starts with accountability. We can know - down to the ad served and who clicked on it - what has been happening. The end of waste. And yet, when the dollars start shifting to digital, it appears that everything (or, at least, a lot of it) gets really sketchy really fast. Unfortunately.

Be vigilant.

Regardless of who the winners are in this mire of fake and fraudulent traffic, it is clear - beyond a shadow of a doubt - that the brand is the loser. And, if the brand is loser, marketing is the biggest loser. It may be Pollyanna to think like this, but it's true. If the brand loses, we should all lose. The engine of marketing is to create interest and sales in the products and services of businesses. If this becomes some kind of digital shell game that is blown out of proportion due to the sheer magnitude and demand of inventory, what is the true business model here? Connections and the sharing of information or generating as many impressions (regardless of how credible they are) as possible?

Seriously, you need to read this: The Amount of Questionable Online Traffic Will Blow Your Mind.

(you're going to be angry).  

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