Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 308

Talking To An Ad Contrarian

Episode #327 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

When was the last time you read a non-fiction business book and laughed out loud? There have been instances where I have smiled, perhaps had an occasional chuckle. The last business book that really made me laugh out loud was Luke Sullivan's Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. I came to Bob Hoffman in a very different way. I had heard about this blog, The Ad Contrarian, for some time, but a headline in DigiDay really caught my attention. The article was called, The Ad Contrarian's Reality Check. And, this is what Hoffman said: "The biggest myth is that the digital ad industry knows what the hell it's talking about. Almost every 'expert' and 'industry leader' who has made predictions about digital advertising over the past 10 years has turned out to be wrong. They told us interactivity would make advertising more effective and engaging. It hasn't. Consumers have shown no inclination to interact with online advertising. They told us traditional advertising was on the way out. Anyone who believes this must have slept through the Olympics. They told us that the DVR was going to devastate the effectiveness of TV advertising. Studies have shown it has had little to no effect on consumer purchasing behavior. They told us the PC and the television were going to converge. They haven't. They have have had a parade of social media miracle cures that were going to 'change everything' -- blogs, podcasts, widgets, YouTube, Facebook, games, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Pinterest, QR codes and, of course, now content. Mostly they have turned out to be over-hyped, marginally-to-moderately effective marketing tools that have not been game-changers, as advertised. The digital ad industry is unreliable at best, and irresponsible at worst." Ouch. You can imagine how hungry I was for more. I reached out to Hoffman and asked if he would be a guest on the podcast. He agreed. I also bought both of his books, The Ad Contrarian and 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising. His books were sharp and hilariously funny. I may not always agree with everything Hoffman says, but his content is well worth digging into as his experience and expertise in the advertising industry cannot be denied. Ultimately, if you just want to laugh about how industry evolves, the books are worth the price of admission. 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 #327.

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The iPad Should Be Free

Have you ever heard of the "razor and blades business model?"

The concept is pretty simple: give people the razor for free and make all of your money by selling them the razor blades. It's a model that many computer printer companies have deployed (you get the printer for $99, but wait until you see what the toner costs!). On Thursday, Amazon's founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Bezos, confirmed that the company sells their highly popular Kindle "at cost." Yes, they make no money on all of those Kindle devices, that we all can't wait to get our grubby little hands all over.

It doesn't seem like a smart business model... or does it?

In a world where Apple not only sells their iPad (ranging from $400 - $900) and also controls the majority of the content that you can put on it from iTunes, why wouldn't they deploy a similar model to Amazon's in the hopes of owning the consumer by way of the hardware? It's amazing how divergent Apple and Amazon's business models are. One could argue, that this is the right play for Amazon, as they are the ones who have to catch up to the deep penetration that Apple and iTunes has in this space.

Actually, it's not about Apple. It's about the consumer.

Amazon should give the Kindle away (or bundle it with $200 of free content via the Amazon store). Much like the razor and blades business model, it's not about the device. It's about the cumulative and ongoing buying of content (books, music, movies, TV shows, magazine and more) that Amazon offers. In fact, even that is shortsighted. Amazon has something very incredible that Apple doesn't even have: an advertising and media empire. Tie this thought into the recent news of Amazon becoming very public about their media and advertising models (before moving any further, please read this article: Advertising Becomes Amazon's Newest Low-Price Weapon) and you can see how hard retailers will struggle to beat Amazon. There is a secret that Amazon holds that not many people know: they make a lot of money in media based on targeting messages to their consumer base. As it has been explained to me by many senior media executives, the number of media dollars per consumer that Amazon makes is significantly higher than anybody else.

Framing the conversation.

To understand this better: Amazon is typically the cheapest retailer. But, if they're selling something for 15% less than Best Buy, how can anybody compete with them? Well, if Amazon is getting close to ten times the amount of money that their competitor is getting because they're marketing to their consumers, the truth is that Amazon could probably sell physical goods to consumers at less than cost price, and still make more overall profit than a traditional retailer. I'm not making this stuff up. While Amazon is not releasing their numbers, it is a known truth amongst those in the know (and I've been told this by people on both the brand and agency side).

The profit isn't in the hardware or software... it's in the targeted marketing as well.

What does Amazon know about you, your buying habits and your lifestyle? In short: everything. They know all of your personal information (who you are, where you live, where you work, your credit card information, etc...). They know your buying habits (what you have bought, what you have looked at, what they have recommended to you, what you have recommended to others, what you have saved to your wish list and more). They now have a deep contextual understanding about you (the type of movies you order, music you listen to, books you are searching for) that far exceeds the type of data that is captured in traditional media. This wealth of information creates a powerful (and valuable) dataset, not only to them but how they can engage both brands and resellers to provide you with the most relevant things for you to buy. From the Advertising Age article above: "We have pretty advanced targeting capabilities. They fall into two buckets - one is lifestyle and one is in-market. Lifestyle is the broader part of the funnel and consists of categories like fashionista, gadget geek, mom or coffee enthusiast. Further down the funnel within categories - has this person looked at consumer electronics products? That's the kind of audience segment information that we share," said Amazon's global head of advertising, Lisa Utzschneider. They're probably under-selling the power of this data or it is so rich that haven't been able to figure out how to sell it others just yet.

The Kindle and the iPad could be free... and these companies wouldn't even miss a beat to beat the street. Welcome to a new age in business.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #121

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, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so 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

The Silent History Is The Most Fun Ebook Yet - 52 Tiger . "Every time I make time to sit down with Hugh, he makes me reconsider what books are... and what they can be. Not just enhanced content, but true interaction. Well, this time I've found something for him. The Silent History is an interesting mobile app, that's also a book, which has locational triggers. Think geo-caching, applied to narrative. And it's crowdsourced, too. Awesome." (Alistair for Hugh).

I am Alexander Rhodes - the Suspicious Onlooker, aspiring actor, and #8 overall on IMDB thanks to Reddit. AMA - reddit . "Here's an interesting story of unintended consequences. It seems IMDB chooses photos for its movie profiles based on their popularity. That means an actor who's more notable gets more visibility. Well, leave it to Reddit to break the Internet once again. This is a multi-part story: first, , AKA "Suspicious Onlooker" in the forthcoming, Jack Reacher , told Reddit he was in the film. Which made the Redditor Horde visit the site. Which boosted his ranking on the film. Which resulted in another story. Which drove more traffic. Which meant he ranked higher than, say, Tom Cruise , the movie's star. An interesting tale in algorithms gone wrong, and the power of Internet fame." (Alistair for Mitch).

Amazon goes backward to move forward - The Globe & Mail . " Amazon is an amazing company, because there is so much focus on what they do. If you're in the ebook space, you may have complained (as I have) about the terrible typography on Kindles (the new ones are much better), and wondered why it is that Amazon didn't fix it. One of the reasons is this: Amazon defines the core benefits to its customers of its products, and focuses relentlessly on those benefits, to the exclusion of other things. For Kindle: easy access to books anywhere, any time. Typography takes a back seat. This short article explains Amazon's early product development phase: the product manager writes a press release for the finished product, listing product benefits, and iterates until the story is exciting enough. Then they start building." (Hugh for Alistair).

The Most Revealing Job Interview Question - Referly . "Great interview question for when you are hiring: 'I want you to explain something to me. Pick any topic you want: a hobby you have, a book you've read, a project you worked on-anything. You'll have just 5 minutes to explain it.'" (Hugh for Mitch).

Recalibrating Therapy for Our Wired World - The New York Times . "Have you ever been in therapy? It's a process. For most, it's a long process. Is there an app for that? We live in a world of instant gratification. Don't believe me? Just take a look at your smartphone. It's blinking, buzzing and telling you stuff. Constantly. Live. In real time. There's a new email, Twitter 's waiting for you, your friends have updated their Facebook status and more. Those little pings are giving you immediate feedback and gratification. So, what's a therapist to do? How does psychology and helping people change in our new digital era? Read on..." (Mitch for Alistair).

The Elephant In The Room - The Huffington Post . "When I was a music journalist, I had the chance to interview Jason Bonham . Jason had a very famous father: legendary Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham . At the time of my interview, Jason was releasing a new album for his band, Bonham . Jason - like his dad - is a drummer. As rumors stirred over the years of a potential Led Zeppelin reunion, no one ever doubted that Jason would fill his father's shoes. While that moment never really materialized besides some one-off shows or appearances, I would - over time - wonder what it was like to be Jason. Don't get me wrong, he's done fine, but it can't be easy to be the son of someone that many consider to be one of the greatest rock drummers of all time. Let alone being his son and trying to establish yourself as a credible drummer in your own right. Now, imagine what it's like to be the daughter of author Kurt Vonnegut ... and a writer as well." (Mitch for Hugh). 

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

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52 tiger

alexander rhodes

alistair croll

amazon

bitcurrent

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jack reacher

jason bonham

john bonham

kindle

kurt vonnegut

led zeppelin

librivox

link exchange

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managing bandwidth

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reddit

referly

story

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the huffington post

the new york times

the silent history

tom cruise

twitter

year one labs

The Most Powerful Stat You Need To Know About Online Video

Online video was supposed to be this massive competitor to TV, wasn't it?

It turns out that online video is actually competing with people who want to watch videos on the go. According to the SFGate article published yesterday, YouTube's Mobile Views Have Quadrupled In 18 Months. From the article: "YouTube executive Robert Kyncl said at a conference that views from mobile devices now account for a quarter of views on the Google-owned video site. 'We're experiencing a massive consumer shift,' Kyncl said at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. 'Mobile has increased from 6% to 25% in last 18 months across the whole of YouTube.' That figure is up dramatically from the latest official statistics YouTube provides. The company has previously announced that mobile traffic tripled in 2011 and stood at 20 percent of total views."

Small and on-the-go for the win!

It seems to me that video content is headed for a moment of collision. On one hand, we have exponential growth when it comes to consumers watching videos on their mobile devices. On the other hand, we have a world where more and more connected TVs are rolling on to the market, and demand for everything from Netflix to Apple TV continues to experience healthy growth as well. So, our ability to deliver broadcast quality, high-definition video content to bigger and bigger screens comes at the very same time as more and more people are consuming large amounts of video content on their mobile devices with small screens.

These are not the same experiences.

Can we - as marketers - agree that watching video on a smartphone is not the same user experience as watching video on a fifty-inch flat screen at home? The challenge is that the content may be the same. Many would argue that they simply won't pause The Avengers movie in their basement and continue the experience on their iPhone, while they head to work on the subway, but it's becoming apparent that we (the consumers) often say one thing and do another. Are we simply saving up all of those cute puppies swimming in the backyard for our mobile viewing and savoring season one of Homeland for when we can cozy up on the couch in our den? Probably not. Statistics and data be damned, but based on this YouTube viewership data point, I'm going to say that people are evolving with the technology, and the quality of a video experience is no longer predicated by the size of the screen and immobility of a human body. It's changing, and marketers are going to have to power along and change with it.

The new face of video.

It's hard to define what this new face of video will be like, but - as marketers - we have to imagine what the advertising and the marketing messages will be like when video uncouples from a fixed location with a screen that lies in the distance, when compared to how we consume video on a 7-inch screen that is constantly popping up notifications in an environment that is already crowded by surrounding distractions and messaging. Just last night, my cable company let me down. They do not carry the CW Network, so I was unable to watch the debut of Arrow (a new TV show based on the comic book character, Green Arrow). I could not access the CW Network's online video of the episode (it's blocked to Canadian IPs), so I bought the episode off of iTunes before realizing that CTV in Canada was streaming it for free online, as the show is running on CTV 2 (also not available through my TV cable subscription). So, the content is here. It's downloaded on to my iPad and iPhone. It's available online for free. Will I deal with a pre-roll and/or post-roll on the site? Will I watch it on my iPhone? Will I wait for my next flight (this coming Sunday) and watch it on the iPad? Will I stream it through Apple TV?

Stop and think about that?

This little piece of video content (a TV show) has been completely decoupled from the experience that helps it generate money (an ad shown as an interruption on a specific date and time). My experience in how I watch it (on an iPhone, iPad, laptop screen or TV) are wholly different engagement experiences. So, as we enter a world where marketers are waxing poetic about the power of content marketing and - in specific - the power of online video, we best be sure we are gathering a keen understanding of how to create dynamic video content that adapts to this very new landscape and environment.

Something tells me it won't be as easy as we think.

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youtube

Where To Put The Blame

Blame the agency.

A friend who owns a marketing agency once half-jokingly said to me that an agency is used in two capacities:

Good capacity: when we do everything great and have a huge win. In this capacity, the Chief Marketing Officer takes all of the credit.

Bad capacity: when a campaign or marketing initiative doesn't fly. In this capacity, it's the agency's fault.

It's true. It is correct.

The role of the agency is to act an agent on behalf of the brand. It is not to take the credit (the credit belongs to the brand). So, when things aren't going well, the agents often do need to be changed... whether the agency likes it or not. The past few decades has given rise to marketing agencies that have become nothing short of rock stars. The past few decades has also given rise to agency talent who are nothing short of rock stars as well. It should come as no surprise that everybody wants to be partners with the rock stars. Yesterday, MediaPost ran a news item titled, Cutting Rosters: Clients Unhappy With Agency ROI, Performance, that rattles off a litany of issues that brands have with their agencies.

The problems include:

44% of brands asked think their agency roster is too big.

69% of brands asked said they plan to cut back on digital agencies.

48% of brands asked said they plan to cut back on creative agencies.

71% of brands asked site frustration with accountability in terms of demonstrating ROI effectiveness.

85% of brands asked say that the major advertising holding companies have not improved their service and they are viewed as "inefficient."

72% of brands asked said that agencies are "inconsistent and need to improve" on delivering integrated solutions.

It's not pretty, is it?

The news item is based on a study done by Avidan Strategies (no link to the study and no additional information to support the context, sorry) and - in a nutshell - it's telling a narrative that goes something like this: "Agencies need to be better, faster and more creative in the digital world. Along with that, agencies need to prove results and get a whole lot better at delivering ROI through proven measurement, while creating better and more integrated solutions. Oh, and by the way, we plan on cutting down on our digital rosters even though we're even more disappointed in the work coming out of our big, traditional agency." 

What's going on here?

There used to be a time (oh boy, here I go starting to sound like an old man...) when the agency and the brand were partners. Where they sat at the table, side-by-side, and worked late into the night, sweating out the details to deliver the results together. Now, we're in this strange game of finger-pointing and blame (if we are to believe the results of this study).

The question of ROI.

Reading between the lines of this MediaPost news item, one thing is abundantly clear: we can't be asking the question of ROI at any point except in the planning stages. If the brand and agency both agree on what metrics will be used to target against ROI in the briefing and planning phases of a campaign, something tells me that a lot of the woes, pains and struggles would be resolved. All too often, our marketing world is filled with vapid briefs that lack true acquisition costs, investment expectations and the desired outcome. ROI needs to be baked into the solution (and it needs to be realistic). Trying to define it after the campaign has begun is not only futile, but lacks credibility and professionalism. We can enhance the marketing experience and manage expectations starting at this very moment. Every brand and agency partner needs to agree that all measurement and metrics associated with return on investment will be formalized and agreed upon prior to delivering anything else.

I wonder what type of wonderful marketing world we could have if just that one thing were to become a reality?

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roi

Self-Promotion And Self-Loathing In The Digital Age

I'm going to make a confession: I don't like the digital me all that much anymore.

I'm going to make another confession: I don't like the digital you all that much, either. I have two loves in social media:

This blog.

My podcast.

I also love reading the blogs of others and I'm a fond follower of certain audio and video podcasts. I feel like there is nothing more fascinating than the human condition, and when it is coupled with a niche interest and person who is passionate about creating content, I marvel at the power of social media and these connected channels. The problem comes in the self-promotion and pimping of that content. The problem comes when I follow others (and look at my own self-promotion) and it becomes abundantly obvious that - for the most part - all of the stuff we post on Facebook and Twitter can be summed up in two ways:

We publish things in the hopes that people will think our lives are more interesting than theirs.

We publish things in the hopes that people will think that our lives are actually more interesting than they really are.

It's time for courage.

The other day, I was watching my Facebook newsfeed. I was reading what people were posting, I was watching the online discourse and all I could think to myself was this: "I wish I had the courage to delete my Facebook account." That's no slight against Facebook. It could have been any of the online social networking channels. My friend - who has teenage children - recently remarked to me that, "social media is the most amazing thing in the world, until you have teenagers... then, social media is the worst thing in the world."

It's something to think about.

Some people are so great at social media. They curate, edit and create. They point you in the direction of wonderful and magnificent pieces of obscure content. They're excellent at sharing and caring. Then, there are people who are busy doing one thing: beating their chest and trying to create the most noise. I have the humility to look back and realize that while I would love to be more like the person who curates, edits and creates, it is often heavily unbalanced by my desire to get you to read my blog, listen to a podcast, check out something we're working on Twist Image or join me at an event I'm speaking at. I'm also pretty good at letting you know when I make some kind of media appearance. Ick. It's icky.

There is no shame.

Some may argue that if you don't toot your own horn, nobody else will. And, to a certain degree, this is true. But there's something happening in the social media channels that is making all of this narcissism just a little bit too much to handle. Andy Warhol would blush. Now, comes the challenge: how do we get our messages out there without being too self-promotional (while still being self-promotional)? Recently, I conducted a minor/innocent experiment. My typical routine is that I publish a blog post and then self-promote it on Twitter, on Facebook and on LinkedIn. In a few instances, I decided to write some blog posts and not self-promote them at all. They didn't get the same level of traction as the self-promoted posts got. So, what's a boy to do? And - by the way - did RSS die? Do we only find out about new blog posts and podcast episodes via Twitter and Facebook?

The Internet is a thing of beauty.

Don't get me wrong. While I can loathe my own Twitter feed or snarl at those who spend the majority of their time trying to look cool instead of trying to be real, I'm still willing to take it all in because of the vast wealth of amazing and independent content that is created with each and every passing day. I read Geoff Livingston's recent blog post, It's Not OK, and it gave me pause to self-reflect. Not only on my own self-promotional content, but the prism that I view the random musings of others. I can be overly cynical, sarcastic and downright rude in how I react to individual posts (I just don't express it publicly). I took a couple of days to back away from the feeds, take a deep breath, center myself and come back. No, I haven't embraced enlightenment or taken on a monk's like perspective, but I am going to hold myself -and others - to a higher standard. Yes, we each have to toot our own horns, but I'm going to do my best to focus on those who are adding to the collective, instead of those simply trying to add to their own ego.

Is this thing on? Am I alone in this thinking? Where are you at? 

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From Atoms To Bits To Atoms

Something amazing happened this past Sunday.

A spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and is on its way to the International Space Station carrying close to one thousand pounds of supplies. The SpaceX Dragon makes history because it was launched by a private corporation (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) as a commercial venture and not a part of the government's NASA program. Many are calling this the re-invention of the space program, and with initiatives like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic (offering customers a suborbital space flight) we are beginning to enter a new dawn in space travel and entrepreneurship. Putting aside the incredible resources and decades of research and development, red tape and more that needs to happen for commercial space travel, it's equally incredible to think about what it takes to build and engineer a commercial space craft. You can't exactly buy the parts at Home Depot.

Welcome to the era of Makers.

Whether you are trying to fabricate a space craft fuselage or you have designed a new toy that you're selling on Etsy (the popular e-commerce website that enables individuals to sell their hand-crafted goods to the world), the ability to fabricate complex physical items and sell them - because of our connected society and technological advancements - has never been easier. According to Chris Anderson (editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and bestselling business book author of The Long Tail and Free), these nascent days of basement developers (also known as Makers) is fueling the next industrial revolution of our times, and it's going to create a profound shift in our global economy. Anderson's latest book, Makers - The New Industrial Revolution (Crown Business, October 2012) tells the amazing story of how 3-D printing coupled with open source design and the entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to take hold. Imagine being able to read a book about the potential of the Internet back in 1995. Makers offers that kind of prophetic prose. Manufacturing from your desktop may sound as crazy as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates did when he said close to forty years ago that a computer would be on every desk. With smartphones, iPads and laptops, we have computers coming out of every nook and cranny of our lives. What makes it so hard to believe that the power of manufacturing won't be turned on its head the way Anderson and the Makers Movement are claiming?

Ask yourself this question...

If you could design anything on your computer and then hit a "make" instead of "print" button, what would you create? It's almost silly to consider this Makers Movement a subculture at this point. From electronics, robotics, and 3-D printing, the emergence of this DIY (Do It Yourself) culture is quickly moving from bits (software and platforms) to atoms (physical stuff). The 2012 edition of the Maker Fair held in San Mateo, California this past May hosted over 120,000 attendees. The event, created by Make Magazine (published by O'Reilly Media), now hosts Mini Maker Fairs all over the world (including Canada). It is the combination of social media technology and a dropping cost to manufacture 3-D printers that is creating this groundswell of interest. Makers often share their designs and collaborate on projects at a global level. DIY is quickly evolving to DIWO (Do It With Others). The movement is reminiscent of the informal get-togethers of technology and electronic hobbyists that was the Homebrew Computer Club (from 1975 - 1986). Yes, the very same place that helped inspire Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to create Apple.

It's manufacturing. It's not mass manufacturing... yet.

For about $2,200 you can order Makerbot's Replicator 2. The desktop 3D printer is ideal for creating professional quality models and it can handle smaller projects, but we're still not at the point where individuals will be rolling out a newly manufactured car off their basement floor and into a showroom... at this point. To put that price tag into perspective, Apple's first laser printer for the home (the LaserWriter, which was launched in 1985) had a retail price of $6,995 and pounded out a rocking eight pages per minute. Indeed, Maker technology is nascent technology, but there is an increasing demand from consumers to have personalized products. As personalization continues to grow, the ability to manufacture cheap, fast and close to consumers will enable these networked designers and machines of the new industrial revolution to create not only a mass quantity, but a customized quantity. The business possibilities and opportunities are endless.

As many businesses grapple with Internet and mobile technology, the Maker movement may well change the entire landscape as we begin a new dawn in manufacturing... right from your desktop.

The above post is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure.

Tags:

3d printing

apple

bill gates

business book

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chris anderson

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What You Need To Know About Converged Media

Episode #326 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Rebecca Lieb was on the show a while back to promote her business book, Content Marketing - Think Like a Publisher - How to Use Content to Marketing Online and in Social Media (you can listen to that conversation right here: SPOS #316 - Content Marketing And The New Advertising With Rebecca Lieb). At the time, she had recently joined the Altimeter Group and was about to release a research report that was co-authored by Jeremiah Owyang titled, The Converged Media Imperative: How Brands Will Combine Paid, Owned and Earned Media. While the report came out in July 2012, the content could not be more in-line with the recent advertising conversations that are being had in relation to the efficacy of advertising on Twitter and Facebook and beyond. In an effort to better understand what marketers need to know about paid, earned and owned media, the time was ripe to dig into their research and have Rebecca break it all down for us. 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 #326.

Tags:

advertising podcast

altimeter group

blog

blogging

brand

business book

content marketing

david usher

digital marketing

earned media

facebook

itunes

jeremiah owyang

marketing

marketing blogger

marketing podcast

online marketing

online social network

owned media

paid media

podcast

podcasting

rebecca lieb

social media

the converged media imperative

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #120

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, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so 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:

Mind Control - Decoded DC . "With party politics on everyone's mind, this podcast on the neuroscience of party politics is both informative and depressing. Hosted by former NPR reporters, it's a smart episode of an even smarter site that tries to get behind the scenes of Washington, DC." (Alistair for Hugh).

. "Do the names we give things affect how we think of them? In this fascinating piece on color and naming, it turns out the answer is sort of yes. Researchers looked at our ability to distinguish colors based on whether we had names for them. Makes you wonder: what other names have the side-effect of making us treat the world differently?" (Alistair for Mitch).

Marc Andreessen - Why Andreessen Horowitz Is Investing in Rap Genius - Rap Genius . " Andreessen Horowitz (one of the most famous web VC funds) is putting $15M into Rap Genius , a site used for annotating rap lyrics. A strange choice, explained in detail by Mark Anderseen on the awesome Rap Genius platform itself." (Hugh for Alistair).

It's Not About You: The Truth About Social Media Marketing - Tim O'Reilly . " Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media talks about marketing: don't market your products, he says, but instead: help people do great things (with your products), and then find ways to amplify their voices, and help them  connect with other people who want to do great things also." (Hugh for Mitch).

An Experimental New Starbucks Store: Tiny, Portable, And Hyper Local - Fast Company . "We tend to forget how dramatically business has changed. I'm currently reading, Makers , by Chris Anderson (editor for Wired Magazine and the author of The Long Tail and Free). Makers is about the new industrial revolution that isn't coming out of traditional manufacturers, but our of our collective basements. The Makers Movement is large and getting larger, so when I see stories like this, it makes me realize how much more dynamic big business can be in a world where both bits and atoms are getting easier for all of us to create and manipulate." (Mitch for Alistair).

Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing - Brain Pickings . "I love posts like this. I love posts like this even more when they are about people like Neil Gaiman . Some people see Gaiman as a science fiction writer. Others see him as a comic book writer. I see a true renaissance man... in every sense of the word. He's smart. Scary smart. But, beyond that, Gaiman is a shining light of someone who is not only following their muse, but comfortable in publicly sharing the journey. This isn't just for writers. It's for everyone. We would all be better people if we were all a little more like Neil Gaiman." (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

andreessen horowitz

bitcurrent

brain pickings

chris anderson

complete web monitoring

crayola

decoded dc

empirical zeal

fast company

free

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

librivox

link exchange

linkbait

makers

makers movement

managing bandwidth

marc andreesen

media hacks

neil gaiman

npr

oreilly media

pressbooks

rap genius

social media marketing

starbucks

story

the book oven

the long tail

tim oreilly

wired magazine

writing

year one labs

Communicating Without Words

"Words account for only 7% of all communication."

That's one data point that has been kicking around forever. The translation is simple: your personal brand is screaming so loud that people can hardly hear a word that you are saying. As someone who gets to present to small, medium and large-sized audiences all over the world, I pick up a trick or two by watching myself present, by watching others speak and by reading and studying the craft of public speaking and storytelling. The differences between what makes a good presenter and a great presenter are - more often than not - slight nuances. An example of that will be: certain speakers think that by putting their hands in their pocket or that leaning on a lectern, it gives off the impression to the audience that they are relaxed and calm. In fact, these non-verbal postures give off the impression of being lazy, unsure and even hiding something to an audience.

Hard to believe?

It's true think about how you feel about the body language of someone the next time they are presenting. It's amazing how many inputs we humans take in (and how insignificant the words actually are). In this recently posted TED Talk, Amy Cuddy (an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School), dissects the power of posture and our body language. It's something that I have been thinking a lot about recently. I spend a lot of time hunched over a laptop or sitting in a plane or in an airport lounge. None of those positions foster a good posture and, I'm convinced, it's affecting my overall health.

It turns out that your body language also shapes who you are (not just how others feel about you, but how you feel about yourself)...

As marketers, if we're not great presenters and presenting ourselves in the best possible way, all is lost.

Tags:

amy cuddy

audience

body language

communications

harvard business school

marketing professional

non verbal communication

personal brand

posture

power posture

presentations

presenter

public speaking

storytelling

ted

ted talk