Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 286
May 24, 2013
Embrace The Squiggle
I do not know who Jake Bronstein is.
I'm simply a huge fan of Jonathan Fields and the Good Life Project. So, whenever Jonathan releases a new episode (which you can now subscribe to as a podcast), I watch it. It is not uncommon for me to have to make a scramble for my Moleskine and pen as the episodes unfold. Jonathan is one of the most compelling interviewers out there. In fact, he's not really an interviewer, but much more of a conversationalist.
Embrace the squiggle.
This past week has been a crazy one. Crazy in an amazingly great kind of way. After a long wait, I finally got to release my second book, CTRL ALT Delete, on Tuesday. Since then, it has been all about promoting the book without letting the balls drop at Twist Image. A lot of my waking hours are busy spent speaking to media outlets about what this book is really all about. In the second half of the book (called Reboot: You), I talk about the value of having a squiggly career. How the most interesting and successful people I know didn't have a very linear trajectory. How it will not be uncommon for many of us to have 4-5 different careers in our lifetime (as opposed to 4-5 different jobs in our careers). Jack Bronstein is the epitome of a squiggly career. Too many people feel trapped and compelled to stay the course. Too many people think that a linear career is the prudent and true path.
Squiggly is interesting. Squiggly is better. If you don't believe me, please watch this:
Tags:
business book
conversationalist
ctrl alt delete
good life project
interview
jake bronstein
jonathan fields
media outlet
moleskine
podcast
reboot
squiggle
video podcast








A Birthday Wish
Yes, today is my Birthday.
I'm not big on birthdays. That's not true. I'm just not big on my own birthday. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I never got the pony that I wanted when I was a little kid (joke!). I've received a bunch of kind birthday wishes already (many thanks). With that, many people have also said that they are going to buy a copy of my new book, CTRL ALT Delete, today as "birthday gift." And, to be honest, that's just amazingly awesome.
Still, it feels a little self-serving.
I not only can't stop anyone from doing that, because I do want to encourage as many people as possible to buy CTRL ALT Delete (that is the job of selling a book), but I certainly don't want to spend my birthday hawking the book. So, here's what I decided to do: I am going to give $5 for every book sold today to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada's Light The Night Walk. Every year, I take part in the Light The Night Walk because one of my best friend's daughter had Leukemia (you can read the full story here: Fighting Cancer... Again). She's fine now, but she is one of the lucky few. So, if you buy a book today, please email me your receipt (mitch@twistimage.com) and I will make the donation in your honor.
A little less-self-serving.
Regardless of how well this little birthday wish does, I am also committing $1000 to the walk as a birthday present to myself and on behalf of all of you. Thank you so much for reading, listening, following and, yes, even buying CTRL ALT Delete. Birthdays are a moment that allow each of us to reflect on how lucky we are. I am very lucky to have all of you in my life. Thank you for inspiring, pushing, provoking, sharing and caring.
It means the world to me.
Tags:
birthday wish
business book
cancer
ctrl alt delete
leukemia
light the night walk
the leukemia and lymphoma society








May 23, 2013
Staggering Stats And The New Reality
Have you seen the CTRL ALT Delete experience yet?
My latest book, CTRL ALT Delete, came out two days ago. In an attempt to create attention and interest, the team at Twist Image put together a very compelling story about business today. So far, the experience has been getting some rave reviews in places like Twitter and Facebook, but - for the most part - people are still misunderstanding what this all means. When you put things into context, provide the data to back it and present it as a story, you would think that the information would wake people up.
It rarely does.
It turns out that people still - wrongly - think that CTRL ALT Delete is a book about social media (it isn't). It turns out that people still - wrongly - think that CTRL ALT Delete is a book about marketing (it isn't). CTRL ALT Delete is a book about business life. We see facts, stats and data points all day long. We 're exposed to information, like we live in a world where more people have a mobile subscription than access to safe drinking water. We live in a world where Google's advertising revenue is greater than that of the entire print industry. But, beyond trying to catch our jaws as they hit the floor, what are we doing about it? We all struggle - deeply - to highlight companies that are handling this moment of business purgatory (as I call it) well. We can't simple rattle them off. There are not a lot of great case studies (or simply not enough of them). Worse, each and every one of us struggles to figure our how to evolve professionally and bring the best "you" to work everyday. Will the company accept my new way of thinking? What will my clients and peers think? Is this too radical for our industry to handle?
What choice do we have?
In 2009, I published my first book, Six Pixels of Separation. It was a book that I wrote to demonstrate how technology, media our new inter-connected changes the very fabric of what it means to be a brand, create marketing and the relationship between consumers and these brands. It was a book that exposed the strategies we used at Twist Image to grow our business from a handful of employees and clients, to our current state of one hundred-plus full-time employees in two cities and working with some of the most iconic brands (we are one of the largest independent digital marketing agencies in North America). I don't write this to brag, but rather as social proof that there was (and still is) alternatives to how to grow and market any business. In CTRL ALT Delete we have entered a world where the very fabric of business has changed forever (I break these out into five major movements in the business book), but brands are still not doing much about it. It didn't end there. I felt that it would be unfair to write about these five movements without also spending a healthy chunk of time discussing us - the individuals - who are now entrusted to thrive in this new business environment.
Go through the CTRL ALT Delete story.
I encourage you to spend a few minutes going through the CTRL ALT Delete digital experience (you can do it online, on your tablet or smartphone). Keep a notepad nearby, answer the three questions that are a part of the experience and then think about two things:
Your business.
Your life.
Ready for a reboot?
What's your take? How well-prepared is your business for this world that is not only constantly changing, but that has changed (dramatically)? How well-prepared are you, personally and professionally, for a world where we'll no longer change jobs 4-5 times throughout our careers, but one where we will change careers 4-5 times throughout our lifetime? It's funny, all of the staggering stats about the new reality in our world still triggers fear and anxiety. In reality, the feeling should be excitement and anticipation of a world that offers up a whole new layer of opportunity, wonder and amazement.
Do you still perceive this reboot to be something negative? You should not.
Tags:
advertising
book publishing
business book
business life
business purgatory
career development
ctrl alt delete
digital experience
digital marketing agency
facebook
google
independent digital marketing agency
marketing
media
mobile subscription
print industry
reboot
six pixels of separation
smartphone
social media
tablet
technology
twist image
twitter
web








May 21, 2013
Welcome To The One Screen World
Channel surfing got weird.
There was this episode of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice this season that revolved around each team's ability to create a television ad for the consumer electronics company, LG. It wasn't really about a particular model of television or kitchen appliance. It wasn't about some new-fangled technology that would allow their washing machines to clean your clothes through some kind of micro-parcel technology. It was all about how connected these devices have now become. The television, the smartphone, the washer and dryer and yes, even the refrigerator are now "smart." Smart in a connected sense. Smart in not just being connected to the Internet, but in how each device now has a touchscreen that offers up all kinds of information - from operating data to content (like recipes based on what's inside the fridge). Screens are everywhere. Screens are connected. Screens are mobile. Screens are increasingly getting cheaper and more ubiquitous.
Welcome to the one screen world.
Not too long ago, I was asked to give a presentation on the state of digital media and how well brands are intersecting the worlds of marketing and technology. Prior to my closing keynote presentation, there was a panel discussion about the state of media. One senior media executive was discussing the power of a four screen world. I thought that he had made a mistake. I was familiar with the concept of three screens (television, computer and mobile), but four screens was something new. Eventually, he unveiled that the fourth screen was the tablet. It's still somewhat shocking to think that the iPad was first introduced on April 3rd, 2010, and we now live in a world where more iPads are being sold than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line (and this has been a constantly growing trend since 2012). In fact, all of this shores up to the notion that it's not about three screens or four screens. It's about one screen: whichever screen is in front of me. In a world where screens are connected and everywhere, the notion of even counting them seems arbitrary, at best. Don't believe me, speak to somebody who is currently sporting Google glass.
The true tale of a nineteen year old.
My niece is nineteen years old. When she was sixteen years old, she would come home school, take out her laptop, plop down on the couch, lift the computer lid, turn on the TV, plug in her earbuds, so that she could listen to music on her iPod, and her BlackBerry was always within reach. From afar it looked like she was running NORAD. Fast-forward a mere three years, and now she comes home from school, takes out her iPad... and that's it. All of that core content is now readily available on the one screen (in one way, shape or form). From content (in text, images, audio and video) to communications (chatting with friends on Skype or via Google Hangouts)... it's all readily available on this one device that rules them all. Yes, we are seeing a massive uptick in consumers who are using companion devices (meaning, they are watching TV but have their smartphones nearby), and while the industry does refer to it as a companion device, the truth is that you're not watching the television with one eyeball and your iPhone with the other. The only screen that still matters, is the screen that is in front of you.
It's bigger than you think.
While most people are busy paying attention to the fact that Yahoo just bought Tumblr for over one billion dollars, they're forgetting something profound about the last acquisition of chaotic proportions (when Facebook bought Instagram for close to one billion dollars as well). In the Newsweek article, Instagram Will Take Facebook Into the Mobile Age (April 16th, 2012), journalist Dan Lyons so appropriately wrote: "The Internet was all about websites. Then came the iPhone and Android, and today the only reason anyone creates a website is to promote a cool new mobile app." And here we are, today, with over a billion smartphones in the world and they are outnumbering the PCs. Within the next decade, virtually all mobile phones will be smartphone, meaning 6 billion people will be constantly connected. And, as if the exponential growth of the one screen world is not scary enough, we currently live in a world where more individuals have a mobile subscription than access to electricity or safe drinking water (more on that here: Putting Global Mobile In Context).
So, how are the brands stacking up?
Not so well, thanks for asking. According to a recent survey by Adobe, 45% of marketers still don't have a mobile presence, and this is happening at the exact same time that eMarketer is reporting that 15% of online retail sales will take place this year via a mobile device (sales will reach nearly $39 billion in 2013, which is up over 56% from 2012). If ever there was a time to embrace the notion of the one screen world, this would be it. Businesses are still splitting hairs of what is the Web, what is the smartphone, what is the tablet and what is TV in a world where consumers are shoring these screens up into one. They have a constant and consistent desire to simply have the content they want on the device they want, when they want it. Sadly, most marketers are thinking about how they are going to advertise on a mobile screen, instead of hunkering down and figuring out what the customer's new expectations are when everything from their washer and dryer to their television and smartphone are hyper-connected to one another. Instead of curling up into a ball or sticking the proverbial head in the sand, what we're truly seeing in this day and age is a massive global opportunity - unlike anything in business that we have seen before - to take the mobile lead. By the looks and sounds of the data and the exponential growth in consumer demands for these devices and the content on them, the one screen world is poised to make websites, social media and e-commerce combined look like a joke in comparison.
Are you ready? Is your brand ready?
The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Harvard Business Review . 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:
Harvard Business Review - Welcome to the One-Screen World .
Tags:
adobe
allstar celebrity apprentice
android
appliance
blackberry
brand
business column
channel surfing
communication
companion device
computer
connected devices
consumer electronics
content
dan lyons
digital media
ecommerce
emarketer
facebook
four screens
global mobile
google
google glass
google hangout
harvard business review
instagram
internet
ipad
iphone
ipod
kitchen appliance
laptop computer
lg
m commerce
marketer
marketing
media executive
mobile
mobile age
mobile app
mobile phone
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newsweek
norad
one screen world
online retail
pc
personal computer
screen
skype
smartphone
social media
tablet
technology
television
television ad
three screens
touchscreen
tumblr
tv
washing machine
yahoo








CTRL ALT Delete. Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends On It. Today Is The Day
What are you going to reboot today?
Today is the day. My second business book, CTRL ALT Delete, is now available. This book is broken up into two sections. Section one is titled Reboot: Business and in it, I define the five movements that have changed business forever that brands are doing little (to nothing) about. These aren't trends (as in, things that are coming). These are movements. They are here. They are backed up with data. They are massive. This will freak out many - but more importantly - provide an amazing opportunity for anybody (from startup to multinational) to take advantage of. Section two is titled Reboot: You and in it, I define several triggers that we - as individuals - now need to think about (and do!) to make ourselves indispensible in this new era of work. We have moved from a world where people would change jobs 4-5 times in their careers, to a place where individuals will change careers 4-5 times in their lifetime. Don't let this creep up on you. Be prepared.
Do you want to be employable in the next five years?
It's a massive provocation, but ultimately, I wanted this book to help people no longer have to think about answering this question. From a digital-first posture to embracing the squiggle in your career, CTRL ALT Delete is your business roadmap out of what I call "business purgatory." I hope you will join me on this adventure.
So, before I ask you to buy the book....
Please read what Seth Godin wrote about CTRL ALT Delete yesterday: You should buy the book.
If you're not willing to read the book, maybe you can listen to the audiobook? You could get CTRL ALT Delete as an audiobook for free here (with a whole host of other goodies and help the charity Jumpstart): CTRL ALT Delete - The Ultimate Business Reboot Audiobook Sweepstakes (thanks to the good people at Audible).
If you're still uncertain, please check out what people like Arianna Huffington, Tony Hsieh, Dan Ariely, Susan Cain, Dan Pink, Jeffrey Gitomer, Julie Burstein and many more have already said after reading the book in terms of endorsements and reviews right here: CTRL ALT Delete Book Reviews And Media.
Please buy CTRL ALT Delete.
The first week of book sales are critical. We have set-up an interesting digital experience to tell the story of just how much has already changed in business, and to illustrate how few businesses are doing anything about it. This experience is also a live survey (three simple questions) that will be updated to demonstrate how we feel about the changes, and what we're doing about them. We partnered with Google Consumer Surveys to get a pulse on where we're at in terms of the great reboot and now we need you to join the fray as this continues to evolve. But, more importantly, the experience is filled with mind-bending pieces of data. You can check it out right here: CTRL ALT Delete.
A little something more.
If you buy a copy of CTRL ALT Delete (in any format), you will also be invited to a special Google Hangout event that will take place in the coming weeks. This event will feature me answering your questions, along with some very special guests. All you have to do is email me (mitch@twistimage.com) your receipt and the best email address to contact you about the details surrounding this very special event. Trust me, you won't want to miss this one.
A little something bigger.
If you buy fifteen copies (or more) of CTRL ALT Delete (in any format), you will be entitled to a free 30-minute private Google Hangout event with me that will take place on a mutually agreeable date and time. You can invite whomever you like and feel free to either ask me questions, or I would be happy to present a couple of new(ish) trends and what they mean to businesses. All you have to do is email me (mitch@twistimage.com) your receipt and the best email address to contact you about the details.
A bigger something.
If you buy 500 copies (or more) of CTRL ALT Delete in hardcover format (which I can offer you at a discount of close to 50% off of the retail price), you will be entitled to a free 60-90 minute live keynote presentation at your company. You can invite anyone you like (employees, clients, peers, industry friends, etc...). On top of that, I am willing to do the exact same presentation for the charitable organization of your choice. This could be a unique (and cost-effective) way for your company to have a special event. It could be a lunch and learn, an executive breakfast or a cocktail event in the evening. Along with that, it enables you to offer a special event to a charitable organization that you hold near and dear to your heart. If you are interested, all you have to do is email me (mitch@twistimage.com) and we can discuss (as there are some additional rules and stipulations to make this one happen).
And now, over to you. Are you ready? Let's go: CTRL ALT Delete...
Tags:
arianna huffington
audible
audiobook
book sales
brand
business book
business purgatory
business roadmap
charitable organization
ctrl alt delete
dan ariely
dan pink
digital experience
digital first posture
google
google consumer surveys
google hangout
jeffrey gitomer
julie burstein
jumpstart
keynote presentation
reboot
reboot business
reboot life
seth godin
squiggle
startup
susan cain
the utlimate business reboot audiobook sweepstakes
tony hsieh








May 19, 2013
Understanding Humans And Making Marketing Better
Episode #358 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
There are certain people that business leaders and marketers should be paying a lot more attention to. Adam Alter is one of those individuals. He recently published his first book, Drunk Tank Pink - And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel And Behave, and it is a truly fascinating journey into the relationship between the forces of our environment and how this shapes the outcomes of our lives. Yes, it's deep stuff, but it is told in a very fun and compelling way (no dry academic fodder here!). Alter is an assistant professor of marketing and psychology at NYU's Stern School of Business and psychology department. His research focuses on the intersection of behavioral economics, marketing, and the psychology of judgment and decision-making. He's also an all-around nice guy. 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 #358.
Tags:
adam alter
advertising podcast
blog
blogging
brand
business book
business podcast
david usher
digital marketing
drunk tank pink
facebook
itunes
marketing podcast
nyu
nyu stern school of business
podcast
podcasting
twitter








May 17, 2013
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #152
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:
Don't make fun of renowned Dan Brown - The Telegraph . "Possibly the best book review I have ever read. Saying more would spoil it." (Alistair for Hugh). Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived From the DNA in Hair and Gum Found in Public Places - The Smithsonian . "Today, when I watch a procedural thriller of a certain age, I find myself thinking, 'one mobile phone and this whole plot collapses.' The title of this post makes it pretty clear what's going on. It's not perfect--the artist is using a lot of guesswork, and only knows things like race, eye color, and propensity for weight gain. But it's great foreshadowing. How long until our kids watch an episode of Castle or The Mentalist and shout, 'come on, just print the killer's face already'?" (Alistair for Mitch). What Norway did with its oil and we didn't - The Globe And Mail . "A nice way to go about life is: look at the things that work, and then do those things. Norway shares some important characteristics with Canada. Among other this: it's northy, and lots of oil. But Norway seems to have been a bit smarter with what it has done with its oil, and the huge income it has generated, over the past few decades." (Hugh for Alistair). What universal child care does for Norway - The Globe And Mail . "It's all Norway today. Here's an argument you don't hear often for expensive social programs: they make your country richer. In particular, Norway has free university education, and deeply subsidized child care. Results? Norway has the most productive economy in the world." (Hugh for Mitch). Big Data Is Watching You - The New York Times . " Evgeny Morozov is a controversial character in the online world. HIs latest book, To Save Everything ,Click , was recently published and this review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review is a fascinating read. Morozov sees the Internet from a very different perspective than most of us. And, while you may not agree with some (or all) of the things that he has to say, it's important for all of us 'believers' to read the thinking of someone who hasn't taken a swig of the Kool-Aid." (Mitch for Alistair). The Twidiocracy - The Weekly Standard . "Maybe there's something in the water this week. Both of my picks seem (somewhat) anti-Web. This is a rant against Twitter . Again, if all you do is think that the Internet and social media are lollipops and bellyrubs, you may be missing the bigger (and more diverse) picture. It seems like those who have access to an audience through a traditional media channel hate the fact that everyone has access to a publish button. What these people fail to realize is that the Web is what you make it. If you have too many stupid tweets in your feed, it doesn't mean that Twitter sucks. It does mean that you suck at finding interesting people to connect to. Don't blame 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:
alistair croll
big data
bitcurrent
book a futurists manifesto
castle
complete web monitoring
dan brown
evgeny morozov
gigaom
hugh mcguire
human 20
iambik
librivox
link bait
link exchange
link sharing
managing bandwidth
media hacks
nikola tesla
norway
pixels per second
pressbooks
smithsonian
social media
solve for interesting
the globe and mail
the matrix
the mentalist
the new york times
the smithsonian
the telegraph
the weekly standard
to save everything click
twitter
year one labs
youtube








The Most Important Thing You Will Watch All Week
Have you thought about education lately?
When you say the word "education," most people run in the opposite direction. I dropped out of university (and, if I am to be candid, I was dragged - kicking and screaming - through both elementary and high school). But, I still never allowed my school to get in the way of a good education. I always had sparks of curiosity and the desire to be creative in whatever work I was trying to accomplish. I always had a deep passion to learn, read, write and create (regardless of how bored I was in classrooms). Now, many places in the world have an educational system that is in crisis. We are still training people for an industrial work environment that is quickly fading. We are teaching the children of today for a world of tomorrow that will look very different. Nobody knows this better than Sir Ken Robinson. I've had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Sir Ken on multiple occasions and have been fortunate enough to have significant one on one time to discuss education, the work that the we do and what kind of world we're preparing our young people for with him. Recently, TED published a new TED Talk featuring Sir Ken Robinson that you should watch. If you have kids, if you care about your own education, and if you think about the future, please spend 18 minutes watching this... and make sure to share it.
How to escape education's death valley...
And, if case you missed his first talk, watch this too...
Tags:
creativity
education
educational system
school
sir ken robinson
ted
ted talk








May 16, 2013
The Truth About Advertising In 2013
Here's a quote worthy of your attention:
"The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it's an ad." - Howard Gossage.
Let's face it: we often make out marketing and advertising to be more important than it really needs to be. This doesn't mean that it's not important, creative and a part of our lives, but this quote from the famed Mad Man speaks to the reality of a media saturated world... and this quote comes at us long before the Internet and social media made it stupid simple for anyone to be a media channel unto themselves. Ads are everywhere and the game of repetition and saturation is still what captures the attention, but there's something else happening to the advertising industry that is worthy of thinking about. It's also worth noting that the people who care most about marketing and advertising is usually us: the people who create it. Those who consume it? They could probably care less.
More than advertising.
If you survey the land of client and agency relationships, what you are bound to find is clients who are asking for much than an advertising campaign, these days. Technology and all of the media permutations that it has created has brought us to this interesting moment in time when clients aren't looking just for ads, but rather business transformation. They want business solutions to help them augment the brand and build more credibility. Data, research and strategy has slowly crept into the creative department and now the work is much more than a thirty-second spot or a contest. Digital has given us the ability to better inform our idea and the net result is that advertising for the sake of creativity is now more like a stunt than the foundational work of what the brand truly represents.
What a true social media strategy looks like.
Too many inexperienced marketing professionals are pawning off social media editorial content calendars and tone and manner for tweets, blog posts and Facebook as some kind of social media strategy. It is not (don't be fooled). The more experienced marketing professionals deliver social media strategies that are, in fact, brand strategies (when done right). Transformation is never easy. Transformation is very hard. Sadly, most people are still thinking like advertisers when, in fact, they need to be thinking more like these global brands that are demanding that the agencies that serve them act as stewards for the transformation of business.
Big, big work.
It's true that sometimes people read ads. It's true that sometimes people like a brand on Facebook or retweet a promoted tweet on Twitter. It's true that a lot of brands use these digital channels as another mechanism to put up more impressions in the marketplace in the hopes of screaming louder than the competition. This isn't what world has to look like. Yes, advertising is still - at its core - the ability to persuade someone to buy something, but the real marketing can be so much more. Delivering business solutions isn't easy. Delivering business transformation is much harder. Creating a social media strategy that is, ultimately, a better brand strategy may not sit well with the clients, but we have to face the realities of the world that we live in.
It's not about ads... it's about solutions. It's not about the ads... it's about business transformation. And so, marketing, continues to change and evolve.
Tags:
ads
advertising
advertising agency
advertising industry
blog
brand strategy
business solutions
business transformation
creativity
data
digital channel
editorial content
facebook
global brand
howard gossage
internet
mad men
marketing
marketing agency
marketing professional
marketing strategy
media
media channel
media permutation
media saturation
research
social media
social media strategy
technology
twitter








Supporting Those You Like - CTRL ALT Delete Comes Out Next Week
My new book, CTRL ALT Delete, comes out next week.
It took well-over six months of concentrated effort to write my second book, CTRL ALT Delete, which comes out on May 21st, 2013. The thing is this: you would have never known it or felt it. In that time, I didn't miss a client meeting for Twist Image or alter my responsibilities at the agency. On top of that, I continued to blog daily, write my weekly contributions to both the Huffington Post and Harvard Business Review and a weekly audio podcast. It was (not so simply) added on to my already rigorous work load. But, here's the thing: it was pleasurable. Pleasurable in the same way that you went to a movie that you adored or falling asleep on the couch after a long day's work.
Here's the dirty little secret about writing a book...
The hard part is not finding a literary agent. The hard part is not finding a publisher. The hard part is not writing it. The hard part is selling it. The hardest part is convincing you (and people who don't know me) that CTRL ALT Delete will be worthy of the time needed to read it. I am thankful that there is a large community of connected people who are willing to share the content that I create, but when push comes to shove and money has to exchange hands, it gets tougher. Recently, I had a conversation with Nilofer Merchant on the eve of her releasing 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era. She was commenting on how little people know when it comes to supporting an author... and she is right. It's not clear.
Tweets are not enough.
With that, there have been instances where individuals have offered to tweet about or post to Facebook and - the truth is - that there is nothing as amazing as the kindness of people that I hardly know. But, we live in an amazingly dense world of information now. So many tweets, blog posts, podcasts, YouTube videos, social media exchanges and more, that it's hard to get anyone to notice - beyond a tweet - about things like a new business book. And those tweets last but for a fleeting moment... and that's only if the people these individuals are connected to are actually looking at their Twitter stream.
What's next?
Beyond giving you something for free or running another contest, I am hopeful that you will help me out by simply buying the book. If you have the means, perhaps you can buy multiple copies and give them away to the people you think might most benefit from the content. And, if you're able, perhaps invite me to speak at your organization or event. While I love to blog, write columns and record podcasts, books are the white space that allow me to take a lot of the divergent and off-the-cuff concepts you have found here, pull them together into a larger and more cogent thought, and truly deep-dive into just how much business has fundamentally changed (and what you need to do to be viable in this new environment).
Yes, there are many way to support an author.
You can buy books, tweet about it and bring an author over to your business to share the knowledge, but you can also help that author see, find and uncover newer media and business opportunities to share the information. CTRL ALT Delete is a very different book. It will help you uncover the five movements that have changed business forever (that few brands are doing anything about), along with the triggers you need for yourself to ensure that you're employable within this new dynamic. With all of the influencer outreach, traditional media and PR work that is being done to launch this book next week, I'm also hopeful that you can keep your eyes and ears open to let me know if there's an opportunity that I may have missed or should be capitalizing on.
I think you will love the book.
I am hopeful that you will buy it, recommend it, review it and share it. I am hopeful that you will help me uncover other opportunities to get the word out. Lastly, thank you. I know that I don't spend much time in the comments or in the back-and-forth on channels like Twitter or Facebook, but I am reading and constantly appreciative of how these stories and ideas spread. I hope you will come along for another book launch next week and stick around long after that for many more blog postings, columns, podcasts and more.
You can pre-order CTRL ALT Delete, right here:
CTRL ALT Delete - Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends On It.
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Six Pixels of Separation
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