Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 273

How To Give A Great Presentation (Seriously)

You're doing it wrong.

People hate it when someone says, "you're doing it wrong," but trust me... you're doing it wrong when it comes to how you prepare for a public speech. I'm sure this will upset many people, but let's walk through the typical scenario of how someone is asked to speak and what happens next:

Step 1: someone gets asked to present on a specific topic.

Step 2: the presenter agrees to present.

Step 3: the presenter puts it in the back of their mind that they must prepare for this event, but because speaking in public is so nerve-wracking, they put it off for the last possible moment.

Step 4: in the week leading up to the presentation, the speaker starts writing down notes and building a PowerPoint deck. It could be more severe than this. Sometimes they write up the speech that they are going to read to the audience (please don't do this).

Step 5: a day or two (but mostly likely, the night before), the speaker runs through the slides and (if they're really keeners) will practice it formally in front of a mirror a few times.

Step 6: they deliver their presentation to an unsuspecting crowd.

Sound familiar?

This is, without question, the worst way to ever give a public presentation, and yet this is how the vast majority do it. Why? Because the first time that the speaker is ever going to give this presentation will be the most important time and - possibly - the last time as well. Ultimately, you are taking this material for a test drive when, in fact, that audience is the grand prix. When you are asked to present, the material should already have been road tested, tweaked and perfected (as much as possible). It sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Well, that's the point. Most presentations suck because the presenter didn't put in the work. Trust me, as much as you may like U2, you do not want to be there when they first try out a song together for the first time. It takes a lot of work to get that song to the point when it is ready for an album or live show.

This is how to really prepare for a public speech:

Step 1: someone gets asked to present on a specific topic.

Step 2: don't agree to speak unless you have enough time to prepare and test the content out live in front of a few real audiences (this can be a simple lunch and learn at your office, joining your local Toastmasters or asking some friends to endure it over some beer and pizza).

Step 3: don't agree to the topic that is being requested. Let the people who are asking know that you will get back to them in 48 hours with some thoughts on what the topic should be.

Step 4: spend the next day thinking about what you would like to present and how it will come together. Jot down some simple notes and top line thoughts on the subject.

Step 5: get confirmation and finalize the speaking topic - to your satisfaction - with the event organizers.

Step 6: build a plan. Work backwards from the date and create a calendar for when you will prepare your content, rehearse your content, present it to your colleagues and then, ultimately, the event.

Step 7: build an outline for your presentation. If you have never done this before, check out the work of Nancy Duarte, Nick Morgan and Garr Reynolds. All three of these presentation masters have tons of free content on how to structure a solid presentation.

Step 8: build your presentation. Have no more than three areas of focus.

Step 9: enlist some help. If you don't think that your presentation skills are up to snuff, please get some help. Again, Toastmasters is great, a local presentation skills coach or even a local stand-up comedian can best help you massage the content and build proper presentation skills. You will be amazed at what you can learn in just a couple of hours.

Step 10: rehearse on your own.

Step 11: rehearse in front of the smaller audiences.

Step 12: ask them for candid feedback.

Step 13: integrate the feedback that makes sense.

Step 14: rehearse in front of another smaller audience.

Step 15: ask them for candid feedback.

Step 16: integrate the feedback that makes sense.

Step 17: ask one of your presentation coaches for their feedback once you have integrated everything from all of your test-run speeches.

Step 18: integrate your coach's feedback.

Step 19: practice some more on your own, and watch speakers that you would consider to be great (YouTube is amazing for this). Think about what they're doing that wins you over. Try to integrate those lessons into your own presentations.

Step 20: step away from the content for a few days.

Step 21: step back in and keep practicing.

Step 22: present at the event... and knock 'em alive!

Sounds like a lot of hard work, doesn't it?

It is. The great public speakers make it look easy. It feels like they're presenting the content for the very first time. The truth is that most of them have practiced and road-tested their material for a while. They are constantly nurturing, tweaking and optimizing it. They look comfortable, because they are comfortable and familiar with the content. There may be some content pieces that are brand new, but it is usually an iterative process. Sadly, most presenters are so unprepared that their only goal is to either get to the end of their slides in their allotted time or read their pre-written speech from the podium without wetting their pants. What most presenters fail to realize is that nobody cares about you getting to the end of your slides or if you survived reading a document in public. People are in the audience for two (main reasons):

To learn.

To be entertained while learning.

No matter how serious the event is, people don't want to be sitting all day and be bored listening to people reading from slides or reading from their printed out Word document. So, the next time you're asked to present, don't just say "yes," unless you're willing to commit the serious time, effort and energy to do it right. Why? Because if you don't take it seriously, you're just perpetuating a world where all of us have to endure another slew of painful meetings and presentations.

Who wants that? 

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Why Popular Science Killed Their Comments And The Huffington Post Should Too

If the comments following this post or any others were gone, how much of a difference would that make?

Last week, Popular Science shut off the comments on their website. In an article titled, Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments, online content director, Suzanna LaBarre stated: "Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off. It wasn't a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter."

You would think that there must be technology to moderate these bad comments and fix it. You would be wrong.

This past week was also the ten year anniversary of my blog, Six Pixels of Separation. With close to four thousand blog posts over the past decade, the daily publishing schedule - along with my commitments at Twist Image - sometimes makes it very time-challenging to sift through, filter and moderate the immense amount of spam, linkbait and more nefarious types of comments that the blogging platform doesn't trap and winds up being published to the world. Combined, it's a overwhelming amount of work to sanitize. I can't imagine what the volume must be like at Popular Science or at the Huffington Post.

A few bad apples can spoil the barrel.

Prior to the mass popularization of social media, there was an interesting functionality for blogs called the trackback. You have to frame the world back then: there was no Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc... If someone wanted to really expand on something that was written in a blog post, you could write your own blog post about it, and the blogging platform would almost-magically leave a comment-like link on the original post that inspired your writing. This would inform the original blog post that you have added to the discourse in another location. The spirit of the trackback was to allow those who wanted to expand upon a concept - in longer form - to not annoy the flow of the blog post and comments. The power of the trackback was that it created a link on the more popular blog sites back to someone else's blog. Back in a world when search engine optimization ruled the world (some might argue that it still does), this reciprocated link was coveted because of how Google's page ranking system highly valued these links (especially when it came from what the search algorithm deemed a credible source). Within no time, those trying to game the system created bots and engines of automation to create a myriad of automated trackbacks. The vast majority of this became so spammy, that it rendered the value of trackbacks useless. In fact, it's hard to find any online publishers who even know or care about trackbacks today.

The blog comments of today are becoming the trackbacks of yesteryear.

Whether we like it or not, the great discourse and online conversations are being clouded and polluted with spammy comments. If you have ever blogged, you will note how difficult it can sometimes be to sort the wheat from the chaff. These nefarious groups seeking free links have become quite sophisticated. There are instances when human beings are actually generating real comments, but applying a spammy or paid link within their personal profile. All of this takes a tremendous amount of time to parse and rectify.

Are there any solutions?

In fact, there are solutions, but no technology to truly deliver on it (yet). It requires online publishers to allow the conversation to be anywhere and everywhere. Instead of having people comment directly on the blog, why not enable them to leave their own thoughts wherever their social graph is most active? Loved something that you read here? Why not tweet your comment? Post it to Facebook? Expand upon it in Medium? Write a follow-up on LinkedIn? Or whatever? Once this is done, you simply add the source link (or the blog post that got you all excited to comment on and share) and what appears after a blog post is a hybrid of curated comments and discourse from across the Web. Readers can then see not only these comments, but the platforms they were created on and the profiles of those who created it. If someone wants to add to the discourse, they simply do so on their own social networks and link it back to the source as well. Of course, this is still a problematic solution. There is nothing stopping the spammers from creating fake profiles. Still, it is a way to increase the distribution of content, while inviting people to add in the arenas that make them most comfortable and increasing the likelihood that others might see this content in new and interesting ways.

Publishers can, ultimately, wash their hands clean.   

In world where anyone can have a thought and publish it in text, images, audio and video... instantly and for free to the world in a plethora of different channels and platforms, doesn't it feel somewhat archaic that our best option is to give individuals the platform to speak? Instead, shouldn't we be letting them choose their own platforms to share their opinions and what they're reading to those that matter most? If you like something that someone writes, why not create your feedback within your own ecosystem, share it with your social graph and let the two disparate publishing platforms enable the free-flowing power of ideas to spread?

Popular Science and the Huffington Post can turn off the comments...

...because that will never stop the power of comments. Comments are - and should - be everywhere. That is the true social nature of digital media in 2013. We all, as individuals, can comment, share and curate anything. Now, they don't need to be on someone's else's channel. They can be on our own. Perhaps, this way, we'll begin a new phase of discovering different types of bright minds as we traipse down newer rabbit holes of content with depth.

Just imagine the possibilities of a world where the comments become a new gateway to new thinking in different channels.

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 - Why Websites Should Kill Their Comments .

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Thanks To Breaking Bad, There Was No Internet Last Week

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: how the Internet came to a grinding halt due to the end of Breaking Bad, what it must be like to work at Google, new tablets from Microsoft and Amazon as BlackBerry continues to feel the pain and the advertising juggernaut that is Samsung.

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10 Years Of Blogging. One Tiny Favor. Please Help Me.

The truth is that I hate anniversaries.

That's kind of a lie. I just don't like the whole, "hey everyone, did you know that I have been blogging for ten years?" I don't blog, write or publish with a numerical metric or amount of time in mind. I don't blog, write or publish with the notion that the longer that I publish, the more entitled I am to your attention or interest. All of that has to be earned - each and every day. I do believe that this is why the vast majority of brands still struggle with content marketing. They're in it for the quick hit. Not to create value and endure. Still, when I mentioned to some close peers that today is my tenth anniversary of blogging, every one of them thought that it is a moment of time worthy of mentioning and writing about. I thought about it, and decided to something a little bit different.

If you care about this blog, I want you to think about helping me put on end to leukemia.

It has been another crazy year of people that I know and love getting some form of cancer, but here's a deeply, personal story: It was beautiful and perfect sunny day on August 25th, 2010. I was flying from Montreal to Toronto for a business pitch. I was happy with life - family, business and community were all going along great. I remember looking out of the plane window into the clear blue horizon and thinking, "life is good. I am very lucky." I was looking forward to landing because I was about to call my best friend to let him know that my family was expecting a new baby. I've known this person for my whole life. I can't remember them not being a part of my life or a friend. He was the first call outside of my immediate family with the good news. He always is. When the flight landed, I received a phone call from him. I was smiling to myself thinking, "this is perfect! He's calling me!"

That's when my world collapsed.

He told me that his beautiful, young daughter, Leah (who was five years old), had cancer... leukemia. How could that be? A few weeks prior she was at my kid's birthday party, laughing, playing... perfect. Now... leukemia? It was - without a question - the hardest moment of my life... trying to understand and take in what my best friend was telling me about his daughter... who I would treat as my own daughter in terms of love and care.

It makes no sense.

Leah's courage throughout this nightmare is what pulled everyone through - family and friends. If there were ever a definition for "survivor" it is Leah. After a lengthy and hard battle, she is - thankfully - in remission and back home where she belongs: with her family and friends. Three years ago, she was diagnosed and a year after that, she was in remission (and remains there).

She's lucky, but many, many people are not this lucky.

Now, it's our turn to make a difference. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada's Light The Night Walk is a night to pay tribute and bring hope to all those affected by blood cancer. On October 19th, I will be joining thousands of people walking in twilight carrying illuminated balloons to fight this dreaded disease for the third year in a row. I'm doing this as a part of Leah's team. I'll be walking with Leah and her family. Leah didn't deserve cancer of the blood... nobody does.

I'm asking you to do one thing for me.

Today is my tenth anniversary of blogging. I do my best to put out six blog posts and one audio podcast every week. This makes it close to four thousand entries over the years. In a perfect world, I'd prefer to not ask for help (those who know me, personally, can attest that I struggle with asking for help). In all instances, I try to make the ask something that has more value to the person actually taking action. Meaning, I prefer when the value of the ask is balanced not towards the person asking, but to those who participate. I'm confident that over the past decade, I have offered up countless pieces that added value to your work (at least, I hope I have!). This isn't about me raising money. It's about our kids and the randomness and cruelty that is leukemia and because none of us are safe. Leah got leukemia with no family history of the problem. Nothing. Now, Leah (who is in remission) will have to deal with this for the rest of her life.

Please help.

I set a goal of $5000 to raise from friends and family. The truth is that I would love to crack the $10,000 mark. I do realize that times are tough and many of us are watching our wallets just a little bit closer than we usually have, but please consider giving something. You know the saying, "every dollar counts." If over the years, any of my content (on the blog, in Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review or in either of my two books: Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete) has struck a chord with you, made you smile, made you see your business world in a different way, I hope that you will consider this ask as the "tip jar" for my thoughts. Please help me. Please sponsor my walk. Please give generously. Please.

If you can find it in your heart to give, please do so right here: Light The Night Walk.

How about a little giver's gain?...

As a "thank you," here's what I am offering:

Whoever gives the most money gets me for a one-hour get-together. It can be via video Skype, phone or in-person (meaning, if you're in Montreal or if I happen to be travelling to wherever it is that you live). It will be a social meeting, but you can feel free to ask me anything. Lunch is on me. I'll also include a signed copy of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete.

Whoever comes in next gets two signed copies of my books, Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete.

Whoever comes in third gets one signed copy of both Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete.

Please help out. Please help me spread the good word. Thank you. I'm hoping that by the 20th anniversary, we don't have to deal with cancer.

My friend - who is Leah's father - wrote the following song and performed it. This should add some more context to my ask...

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How To Builds Brands That Sell But Don't Sell Out With Marc Ecko

Episode #377 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Welcome to episode #377 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. Marc Ecko is one of the most fascinating people that I have ever met. I was asked to interview him live and onstage in Toronto earlier this year. I knew that he was the creative and fashion genius behind Eckō Unltd. (which has become a billion dollar fashion and lifestyle company). I also knew that his marketing antics have been well documented (remember the tagging of Air Force One?). I figured that I was going to meet an older gentleman in their late fifties (like a Tommy Hilfiger or Kenneth Cole type of persona). It turns out that Ecko and I are almost the exact same age (I need to start working harder!). Ecko is still semi-actively involved in the multiple fashion brands that he created (Eckored, Marc Ecko Cut & Sew and Zoo York), but spends the bulk of his current time working on Complex Media. As if that's not enough, he is one of the most generous philanthropists out there, and recently released a stunning business book called, Unlabel - Selling You Without Selling Out. He is, simply put, an amazing individual who is very real, practical and friendly. Enjoy our 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 #377.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #171

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:

Transforming the Old Bay Bridge Into a Park for Adventure Tourists - Gizmodo . "I was in Oakland the weekend they switched the bridge over. After years of engineering, the earthquake-weakened Bay Bridge was replaced by a shiny new successor. Google was updating Maps in real time as the connections were made. It was a much-needed upgrade to a vibrant economic hub. But what to do with what was left? I immediately thought of William Gibson's Virtual Light, in which one of the Bay Area's bridges is transformed into an aerial shanty-town. Turns out I wasn't the only one." (Alistair for Hugh).

Box - Vimeo . "Projection mapping is pretty cool. I saw Amon Tobin's ISAM at Brooklyn's Masonic Temple, and it blew my mind. It's light and illusion as performance art, making depth appear and vanish where it shouldn't, couldn't possibly be. Well, someone's taken that to the next level, merging projection mapping with robot-controlled screens that move with impossible smoothness and precision. This video is mind-bending, and remember: it's all done with a real camera. No CGI. Wow." (Alistair for Mitch).

Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis - IPCC . "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is releasing it's 5th assessment of the science of climate change, an update six years in the making. We're six years further down the path of climate change, six years further down the path of doing nothing about it. Six years further down the path of the anti-climate lobby eating the pliable media for lunch with their skillful balderdash. Read the report here." (Hugh for Alistair).

Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the 'pathetic' American media - The Guardian . "Seymour Hersh is a crotchety, uncompromising hero, an investigative journalist without peer. He broke Mai Lai, Abu Grhaib, and is the best writer on US military and foreign policy I know of. I've been wondering where he is, what with Iran and Syria and Egypt and and and. Turns out he's taking a break from reporting, to write a book. Along the way he has a suggestion for saving news media: fire 90% of the editors in the world." (Hugh for Mitch).

Lucasfilm shows off the future of filmmaking? Scenes get rendered out in real time, removing the need for post-production - That Video Site . "Without question, this is one of the coolest things I have seen in the past long while. Let's put aside the fact that I am a massive Star Wars nerd, and that I am constantly fascinated with the integration of technology and movies. This is, simply, leaps and bounds ahead of anything we have seen in movie production in the past long while. It also opens up so many opportunities. I just can't wait to see what the output of this will be. Watch... and be amazed." (Mitch for Alistair).

19 Reasons We Should All Start Writing Letters Again - Buzzfeed . "I live a dual life. On one hand, I love all things digital. I read books on my iPhone via the Kindle or Kobo app. I send most of my message via email or text. I write, construct and share the vast majority of my content via digital channels. On the other hand, I can't walk by a book store, magazine store or stationary store without walking on. I love looking at books, magazines, journals and writing instruments. I have drawers full of pens, notepads and more. I'm not a hoarder - by any stretch of the imagination - but I do love me some traditional pen and paper. I read this blog post... and I wanted to write you a note. Of course, I caved and went digital." (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.

Box from Bot & Dolly on Vimeo.

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Digital Empathy

When I drive home from the office, I pass an elementary school and there are always shenanigans taking place.

I worry that my children are going to face bullies. They will. We all do. Regardless of the mass media attention that this has received in the past few years. Regardless of how many young lives we have lost or that still remain ruined. People often point to social media as an aggravator of the situation. A friend of mine put it best: "social media is the best thing in the world, unless you have teenage kids... then, it's the worst thing in the world." Yep.

What happened?

When we first got computers there was not much human interaction. In the early days of modems and BBS, it was still hard to be anonymous, plus we truly wanted to connect with others who were like us. It was a small village. The Internet changed that. Social Media completely changed everything again. We believed that social media was all about this notion of a "conversation." In both of my business books (Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete), I write about why I love this kind of technology: it's about real interactions between real human beings. The truth is, that it's more about artificial interactions between human beings who are hiding behind technology. If we ever want to move things forward, we'll need this technology to make us feel empathy within these interactions. It's not dramatic. It's a fact. So long as you can type something about something or someone and not have to look them in the eyes, this will never truly be "real." You may have seen the following clip of Louis C.K. being interviewed by Conan O'Brien about why he hates smartphones. It's funny (so it's worth it just for the laughs), but Louis touches on something very real and troublesome about the interconnected of our technology, and the vacuum that exists between humans when the vast majority of communication doesn't require looking into someone's eyes and feeling their reactions... that's real empathy.

We need some digital empathy.

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Thinking About Starting A Business? Welcome To The Art Of Small Business! Now, Check Out What You Can Win...

Are are looking for an event to help inspire your entrepreneurial and creative spirit?

The Art of Small Business is coming to Toronto on Monday October 21st, 2013 at the Metro Convention Center, and it is a full-day of learning from some of the world's best. I feel very honored to be sharing the stage that day with:

Michael E. Gerber . If you have a business or are thinking about starting one and have not read his seminal book, E-Myth Revisited, you really should. Gerber helps businesses understand the value of systemizing the work that they're doing. The E-Myth is a book that I re-read yearly. Yes, it's just that good.

Chris Guillebeau . He started a blog to talk about his desire to visit every country in the world and wound up inspiring hundreds of thousands of people to re-imagine their lives. He has two incredible books, The Art of Non-Conformity and The $100 Startup. Plus, he's the founder, curator and host of the World Domination Summit.

John Jantsch . A name that fans of this blog and podcast will recognize. He is the guy behind Duct Tape Marketing and one of the world's leading authorities on marketing and innovation for small business. Along with the book, Duct Tape Marketing, he is also the bestselling author of The Referral Engine and The Commitment Engine.

JJ Ramberg . She is best known as the host of MSNBC's Your Business and bestselling business book author of, It's Your Business. Ramberg will also be the host of the event throughout the day.

Jonathan Fields . The man behind Good Life Project and author of Uncertainty, I think Jonathan has one of the most compelling video podcasts on the Internet today.

Stephen Shapiro . The author of Personality Poker and Best Practices Are Stupid is a widely regarded expert on innovation and business growth.

Talk about an incredible line-up! Talk about an incredible day!

Would you like to take part? I will also be presenting the key components of my latest book, CTRL ALT Delete, on stage that day. General admission tickets are only $349 for the day and the VIP experience (which includes premium seating, some books and lunch) is only $549, but we can do much better than that ;) If you use the promo code CTRLALTDEL, you will save $50 off per ticket or $100 off per ticket if you buy three of more.

Want to win an extra special experience that day?

If you buy your tickets to the Art of Small Business using my CTRLALTDEL promo code, you will also be automatically entered into a very special Six Pixels of Separation community experience. We are going to have a private lunch for 10 people, where the winners will be joined by John Jantsch and I. We will have an intimate and interactive Q&A/conversation with everyone invited to this exclusive lunch. We are both confirmed for this exclusive event, and some of the other speakers have committed to come along, should their travel schedules allow it. Each winner will also be upgraded to a special reserved seating section at The Art of Small Business. And, as if that were not enough, each winner will receive books from each of the seven speakers. The business book bundle includes:

Best Practices Are Stupid by Stephen Shapiro

The Commitment Engine by John Jantsch.

CTRL ALT Delete by Mitch Joel.

E-Myth Mastery by Michael E. Gerber

It's Your Business by JJ Ramberg.

The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau.

Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields.

Act now. The ball is in your court...

Winners will be announced here, on the blog, on October 11th, 2013 after 6 pm (eastern). All you have to do to enter is purchase your tickets to The Art of Small Business in Toronto on October 21st, 2013 by going right here: The Art of Small Business - CTRLALTDEL.

I hope to see you there and I will be spending the day, along with every other attendee, watching and learning from these amazing speakers and hoping to connect with as many people as possible.

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What Keeps The Chief Marketing Officer Awake At Night? - Part 2

The Chief Marketing Officer must better understand how information is created, stored, shared and capitalized upon.

There is a strange default position that most businesspeople (mostly marketers) take when they don't understand why something is happening in the business world. How could Facebook buy Instagram for close to a billion dollars? What was Yahoo thinking when they acquired Tumblr for nearly the same amount? What was the point of Publicis merging with Omnicom? There is a collective scratching of the heads, the shrugging of the shoulders and then, one word tumbles out of someone's mouth ("data!") and everyone else nods in all-knowing way, when in truth the vast majority of Chief Marketing Officers have little-to-no knowledge of what exactly this all means.

It's a generalization, but based on what we see in the marketplace, it is true.

In the last post (What Keeps The Chief Marketing Officer Awake At Night? - Part 1), we looked at how the Chief Marketing Officer must regain their status within the c-suite and the overall corporate function. The truth is that the CMO has never had this much access to this much information. So, if the true gold in these multi-million dollar deals that roll into the billions of dollars is about data, then why isn't the CMO leveraging all of this data in a way that engenders them to become the true gatekeepers of the brand? We used to live in a world (pre-Internet) when brands were starving for more consumer data. Now, we quickly dove into a world where brands are, literally, drowning in the data. I jokingly tell audiences that you can't throw a marketing professional down a flight of stairs these days without having the words "big data" tumble out of their pockets. It's as if this part of the business has completely capitalized on the traditional reams of data, and they're now elevated to the point that they can actually do something more. The vast majority of Chief Marketing Officers extolling the virtues of big data seem to think that it's just like the data we have known to date... but more of it. That's not big data... that's more data. That's just a lot more of the same data. As these CMOs continue on their verbal admiration of everything that big data will bring to the industry, it becomes abundantly clear that we've entered into the realm of marketing jargon bingo.

Why big data doesn't matter (just yet).

In my second business book, CTRL ALT Delete, I have identified a movement (something that has fundamentally changed business forever that most brands are doing little-to-nothing about) that I dubbed, Sex With Data (chapter 4). The idea is that most brands have a tremendous amount of (what I call) "linear data" (this can anything from traditional advertising metrics to email capture to customer service information). It is the standard - or linear - data that brands collect on a daily basis. The Web has brought forth an entirely new type of data that I have called, "circular data." This circular data is not something that brands can collect and own. It is the information that consumers are willfully creating and sharing online and on social media channels. It is everything from their personal profiles (think about LinkedIn and Facebook) to what they're thinking (look at blogs, Twitter, Pinterest and beyond). Suddenly, brands can better connect to these individuals through these social channels, and this creates a more holistic connection to "who" their consumers truly are (pushing well beyond the standard demographics and psychographics). Sex with data happens when brands are able to bring together that linear data with the circular data to create something more personalized and valuable to the consumer. Now, before we all start getting hot and bothered about the notion of big data, how many brands have wrapped their heads around the intersection of this linear and circular data as it sits today?

The big joke of big data...

Is this: why worry about big data when the CMO is sucking at small data? It's not about access to this information or having the technology to slice and dice these two dynamic forms of information. The technology exists, and it's a fairly cheap process to have what my friend, Avinash Kaushik (Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google and author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0) calls a "data puke." It's the hard work of turning this data into something actionable. It's not just mining the data for insights and turning that into some kind of campaign that demonstrates how data will always beat a random creative idea. It's about understanding the new sensitivity that consumers have not only about their personal information, but what they're doing online and how it is being monitored. Consumers can easily get creeped out when brands use too much familiarity. And this, is the true challenge of the CMO going forward. Beyond the practical marketing needs of data and analytics, how does a corporate brand deliver such a high level of value ad personalization that the familiarity is warranted? In a world of behavioral tracking, online social networks, and constant digital public displays of attention, brands can easily know that much more about their consumers and have a profoundly powerful direct relationship with them. In this world (which is the here and now), the CMO's role is less about how the data and analytics influences the creative advertising, and that much more about what these varied data sets look like, the governance of this data, how it is used, who owns it and how is it being optimized against the overall business strategy.

This is the true convergence.

The Chief Marketing Officer of tomorrow will have as much knowledge and experience in understanding data, as they currently do when it comes to running an advertising campaign or putting their brand name on a sports arena. So, while advertising agencies trot out the old slogan that the work is all about the convergence of data and creativity, we are starting to see the nascent stages of that agency marketing rhetoric become the true convergence point for these marketing leaders. It also engenders a marketing model that is more agile, while moving marketers away from quarterly and seasonal campaigns. Agile will best be defined in the marketing department as a place that is in a constant state of testing and learning. Small, incremental tests and iterative adjustments where true lifetime value of a customer meets a mathematically sound cost per acquisition strategy. The data and analytics allows for these types of definitive metrics today.

Maybe some CMOs will see this as panacea. Maybe other CMOs will see this as true performance marketing.     

In the next post (in about two week's time), we'll look at how the Chief Marketing Officer must have closer ties to IT and technology. If Gartner is right, and that by 2017 the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO, what does the marketing department of the future look like? How does technology (beyond data and analytics) affect everything from personalization and localization to contextual marketing and automation tools? The next few years are going to get increasingly more technical and technology-driven for the CMO.

And, in case you missed it...

There are five core foundational reasons why the Chief Marketing Officer's role within the organization is in such a fragile state. Over the next few months, we will deconstruct the following five areas that the Chief Marketing Officer must pay increased attention to, in order to figure out what the next decade of marketing will look like for businesses.

The five areas that Chief Marketing Officers need to pay attention to:

The corporate function (which you can read here: What Keeps The Chief Marketing Officer Awake At Night? - Part 1).

Data and information (this post).

IT and technology (next post).

Media and communications (coming soon).

Talent and recruiting (coming soon).

As always, please feel free to add your perspective below...

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10 Brand New Books That You Should Read

Suddenly, I don't know where to start.

It's like the brains of the world converged, had a meeting and decided to overwhelm us with a mass amount of brand new books to get our brains frothing. This is, without question, a tough time to figure out which brand new business book you should start with. My Kindle runneth over with books that must be consumed, contemplated and implemented. All of these books have either just come out (in the past month, or so) or will be coming out at any moment.

Go get your credit card. Here are 10 brand new business books that you should read (in alphabetical order): 

The Authentic Swing - Notes From The Writing Of A First Novel by Steven Pressfield. I am an unabashed fan of Steve Pressfield. If you write or create anything and have not picked up his books, The War of Art and Do The Work, you are really missing out on something special. In this book, Pressfield walks you through how he came up with and wrote his smash bestseller, The Legend of Bagger Vance. The Authentic Swing arrived today, and odds are very strong that every other book on this list will be dropped down a notch until this one gets chewed up. Also of note, Pressfield will be appearing on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday series this coming Sunday. If you struggle with getting inspired, starting a project or getting to another level in your creative thinking, you don't want to miss this book. Pressfield also launched a two-part online video series to promote The Authentic Swing that walks through his The Foolscap Method. Amazing stuff. Here's a conversation we had back in 2011: SPOS #251 - Do The Work With Steven Pressfield.

David And Goliath - Underdogs, Misfits, And The Art Of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell. This is my current read. The book will be out on October 1st, 2013 and I am enjoying it immensely. If you're not a fan of Gladwell, it is doubtful that this one will win you over. Personally, I like the way that he weaves research and academics with everyday people stories. I also like how he challenges the status quo with a different point of view. Insights, perspective and an amazing writing style makes this one a necessity for your book collection. Let's face it, walking around with a Malcolm Gladwell book also makes you look smart and cool. Who doesn't want that? ;)

Die Empty - Unleash Your Best Work Every Day by Todd Henry. This is Todd Henry's latest book. For my dollar, it is one of the best titled books on creativity to date. But, as you know, we never judge a book by its cover (or title). Thankfully, Henry fully delivers on this one. It's a veritable page-turner of insights and new ways to think about how to soak the most creative juices out of your life. People seem to think that creativity is based on scarcity. Die Empty will help you better understand that it is a model of abundance. You just have to better understand how to harness it. This book comes out tomorrow, so don't delay. Here's a conversation we had back in 2011: SPOS #259 - Accidentally Creative With Todd Henry. Plus, look for an upcoming episode of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast where we discuss Die Empty.

Epic Content Marketing - How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less by Joe Pulizzi. In a world where everyone is talking about the merits of content marketing, Joe Pulizzi is one of the true, experienced voices in the space. I read an earlier draft of this book and was amazed by the depth of it. If you're looking at how to bulk up your content marketing strategy, or where to get started, this is a great primer and is right up there with Content Rules. Here's a conversation we had back in 2012: SPOS #289 - Content Marketing With Joe Pulizzi.

Remote - Office Not Required by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. The guys from 37 Signals blazed the bestselling book lists with their opus, Rework. Now, they're back with a book and topic that is near and dear to my heart. There are days when my office is my MacBook Air and iPhone, and there are days when my office is the physical space that we occupy at Twist Image. How would we build, design and market brands if we all worked remotely? I'm not sure it would be as successful. This probably isn't a zero sum game, so I am curious to see how Jason and David tackle this issue as our work environment changes from day to day. This book comes out on October 29th. I don't have it, yet. 

Smarter Than You Think - How Technology Is Changing Our Minds For The Better by Clive Thompson. Another book that I bought, but have yet to tackle. Thompson's articles in Wired Magazine are always amazing. There is a massive technology backlash underway. A lot of it stems from comments like Google is making us all dumber or that Wikipedia isn't always perfectly correct, and we're loosing our ability to learn because all of this technology and inter-connectedness. Thompson doesn't agree, and he lays out his lucid reasoning in this important book. Personally, I can't wait to dive in!

Thinking In New Boxes - A New Paradigm For Business Creativity by Luc De Brabandere and Alan Iny. Don't be fooled by the notion that these two Boston Consulting Group consultants would struggle with helping businesses to figure out new ways to be creative and innovative. This book reads like an instruction manual for businesses to review their own strategies and figure out how to out-innovate those who seek to disrupt their industries. It is well-researched and tells some amazing stories of brands that have discovered non-obvious but complimentary new business models and have managed to create a sustainable competitive advantage. I talked up the book with Alan Iny right here: SPOS #374 - Inside The Box Outside? Outside The Box? New Boxes With Alan Iny.

Unlabel - Selling You Without Selling Out by Mark Ecko. I am still waiting on the physical version of this book from the fashion, pop culture and art icon. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ecko at a mastermind session earlier this year, and we recently took some time to discuss his latest project: this book. The conversation with him will be published this coming week on the Six Pixels podcast, but he is one person who understands (and can explain) what it means to build an authentic brand. Many people talk the talk, but Ecko walks the walk... time and time again. If you're interested in brands and how they work, order a copy of Unbrand. This book comes out on October 1st.

Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed by Alexis Ohanian. I have been hearing about this book for well over a year. Alexis and I share the same publisher and editor. I'm really curious to read this book (which also comes out on October 1st) from the co-founder of Reddit, Hipmunk and more. He's a passionate startup guy and investor (deeply rooted with Y Combinator) and this book is all about using the Web for good. I'm fairly confident that this one will live up to its hype... if not, he'll get mauled on Reddit. I doubt he will let that happen ;)

The Year Without Pants - WordPress.com And The Future Of Work by Scott Berkun. This is another one that I have recently purchased and can't wait to attack. Scott has written books on everything from productivity (Making Things Happen) to how to be a great public speaker (Confessions Of A Public Speaker). I'm excited to see where this journey leads. Berkun writes with a very fresh, direct and powerful style. He makes reading easy... and it's a welcome break from some of the more laborious reads.

Some others are coming soon as well...

Gary Vaynerchuk has his latest book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook - How To Tell Your Story In A Noisy Social World on November 26th and Scott Stratten (Mr. Unmarketing) is set to launch, QR Codes Kill Kittens: How to Alienate Customers, Dishearten Employees, and Drive Your Business into the Ground on October 7th. I am sure that there are other gems that I have missed.

So, what brand new books are you waiting on?

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