Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 315

August 5, 2012

Get Writing!

Episode #317 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.



Do you think you have a book in you? A blog? A blog post? A clever tweet? Do you love the industry that you serve? Do you write about it? There's no doubt about it, writing will make you smarter, better and more informed about your life (both personally and professionally). The problem is that most people don't know where to start. They think that writers have some kind of special, unique gift. Jeff Goins can help you. I read his e-book, You Are A Writer (So Start Acting Like One) and it gave me a ton of insight. Ricardo Bueno was kind enough to make an e-intro, and I was thrilled that Jeff agreed to come on to the podcast. Jeff has since published his first book, Wrecked, and continues to blog regularly about how to write and how to become a better writer. 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 #317.





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Published on August 05, 2012 18:26

August 4, 2012

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #111

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:




Earth Engine - Google . " Google has consistently balanced its marketing and commercial efforts with those that are good for the planet, taking a stance on things like gay rights, global warming, and science education. Now, they've taken their Google Earth resources and created time-lapse videos that show -- painfully -- how the planet is changing. Watching the Amazon rainforest vanish, or Las Vegas sprawl across the desert, or the Aral Sea dry up, is as sobering as Potter's last thoughts." (Alistair for Hugh).

Dennis Potter interviewed by Melvyn Bragg - The Guardian . "To have one's last words recorded and broadcast to the world must be a remarkable thing. This is one of the most remarkable -- and sobering -- interviews I've seen in recent times. The Guardian published the transcript; here's how interviewer Melvyn Bragg remembered it. It's part of The Guardian's series on memorable interviews. 'The only thing you know for sure is the present tense, and that nowness becomes so vivid that, almost in a perverse sort of way, I'm almost serene... the nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous, and if people could see that, you know.'" (Alistair for Mitch).

Touché: Touch and Gesture Sensing for the Real World. - Disney Research . "We probably aren't all that far away from dispensing altogether with our 'smartphones,' leaving us with just the 'smart.' Or, for how much longer will we have to poke at some silly device in order to listen to music, phone a friend, or write an email?" (Hugh for Alistair).

What if every Olympic sport was photographed like beach volleyball? - Metro . "It's Olympics time, and you might have noticed that some sports are not portrayed in quite the same way as other sports. In particular, women's beach volleyball has some rather ... odd characteristics. For instance, competitors are required to wear skimpy bikini bottoms. And, photographers have noticed. This article poses an important question: what would happen if we applied the same photojournalistic practices to other sports that we apply to women's beach volleyball?" (Hugh for Mitch).

The Basic Question - The New York Times . "In short: I am afraid... very, very afraid to read this book. I grapple with my own existence and meaning. I am constantly searching for any clues as to why, exactly, I was put on this earth and what I am supposed to do with my time. It's not philosophical or religious, just something that has always been on my mind. I was like this when I was a little child, and not a day passes me by when I don't ask these types of existential questions (for better or for worse). This book review looks at Jim Holt's latest titled, Why Does The World Exist? Suck on that question for a second or two. If you were mandated to write a book like this, where would you begin? And, if you could uncover the answer... are you sure that you really want to know the truth?" (Mitch for Alistair).

A Conversation With Gore Vidal - The Atlantic . "I'd like to claim that I am all high-brow and that I have always been admirer of the work that Gore Vidal put out. I would be lying. The truth is that I recognize the name, but have never read a single piece of work that he wrote. That doesn't mean it feels any better to hear that such a literary luminary passed away. We need more voices that provoke new thinking, not less. Reading through this interview, it's clear that Mr. Vidal was both outspoken and an icon. It's pieces of journalism like this that make you want to deep dive into an author that you never looked at before. Some people get depressed when they realize how many classic writers they will never get a chance to read in their lifetime. I relish the thought that I can read something cutting edge one day and them lapse back into some classic words that are brand new to me." (Mitch for Hugh).


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







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Published on August 04, 2012 10:18

August 3, 2012

The Era Of Exponential Marketing

Most everything we look at in the marketing realm is linear.



We'll look at things like mobile adoption and it's always with a linear perspective. It wasn't too long ago that several brain trusts were telling me that smartphone adoption was at 28% one year and expected to grow to around 32% the following year. Sigh. Linear growth. We're quickly entering the world of exponential growth and it's something that few of us are prepared for. One of the clearest explanations of exponential versus linear growth came to me courtesy of a presentation that I saw from Ray Kurzweil (futurist and author of books like The Age of Intelligent Machines and The Singularity Is Near, to name a few). He was talking about the intersection of biology and technology and how once we discovered how to map only one percent of the human genome that we were, basically, at close to one hundred percent. That first one perfect is always the hardest part, but then exponential growth starts kicking in (for myriad of reasons) and stuff starts to boogie.



Most everything we look at in the marketing realm will need to be exponential.



MediaPost had a news item yesterday titled, iPad Sales Are Driving Massive Tablet Growth. From the article: "According to IDC's Quarterly Media Tablet Tracker, 25 million units shipped in Q2 - a 33.6% increase from the previous quarter's 18.7 million and 66.2% over the same period in 2011." Those are exponential numbers, people. Let's not forget that Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad in March 2010 (that wasn't all that long ago). It's not just tablets, either. Look closely at the rate of adoption for things like smartphones and e-readers and you start seeing this type of exponential behavior everywhere. 



Marketing needs to become an exponential business.



Shifting back to tablet talk, this is just the beginning. Google is getting aggressive with their Android-based tablets. As is Microsoft, Amazon and a bunch of other hardware manufacturers (Acer, Samsung, etc...). The rumor mills are spinning with word that Apple is going to launch a 7-inch version of the iPad shortly as well (to compete with the others in terms of form factor and price). On top of that, there is a very healthy app ecosystem at play here that is only beginning to unlock the power of everything you can do with touch on a larger screen that couldn't be done on a PC or a smartphone. Exponential growth. Exponential opportunity. Exponential new ways to think about marketing.



It's exciting, isn't it?



It probably is exciting for you and me. But, let's face it: most brands are woefully unprepared. They're thinking that the market is still too small, not significant or worth the cost of jumping in with both feet. This is classic. They're thinking about ways to make their websites and mobile sites tabloid-friendly. In that, they are completely missing the mark. This is exponential growth and it's happening right under our noses. Being prepared isn't going to be about a two-year outlook (don't believe me? Please go back to the top of this blog post and re-read those iPad stats courtesy of MediaPost). Instead of waiting for things to happen, the biggest opportunity facing marketers today is shifting from a linear analytics mindset into an exponential one. Yes, it's an overwhelming and daunting challenge, but let me ask you this:



What choice do we have?





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Published on August 03, 2012 13:23

The Finish Line

If I only had a few more hours... or a couple of more days...



How long does a creative idea take? I was on a very long flight overseas last week and managed to watch a documentary about the rock band Coldplay. The only reason that I mention the flight part is because I can't - for the life of me - remember the name of the documentary (thank you, jet lag!), but it was about the making of the album X&Y (which was the follow-up to their massively successful release, A Rush Of Blood To The Head). X&Y was a tough album for the band to make. They not only had issues with getting the songs just right, but they struggled with producers. The story goes that in this delay it, it caused their record company's (EMI) stock price to drop because shareholders were expecting the album to be released in the fiscal year prior to when it actually hit the shelves.



You never know when a great song is going to hit you.



What would you do if you were an artist? If you were a songwriter? A painter? an author? Do you wait and wait for inspiration to hit hard? Do you work non-stop to develop your ideas until they are finally ready to be produced? Do you have to be an artist to think like this? What about the work that you do? How do you meet your deadlines? Are they realistic? Is there too much scope-creep? Do you think that the final product would have been that much better if you had just had some more time?



Deadlines... and the finish line.



What surprised me most about this documentary was what lead singer, Chris Martin, had to say about the album and getting things just right. He talked about simply getting it done. It wasn't about whether or not shareholders were happy. It wasn't about the problems they had with finding the right producer to help them actualize the songs. In all of that, the band had always set a very firm finish line, and they were constantly working towards that finish line. What was publicly perceived as them just taking their own, sweet time in the creative process could not have been further from the truth. They were writing the album with a finish line set in their mind and they weren't going to fall short of it.



Creative work is not open-ended.



Staring off into the sky. Taking naps. Going for a long walk. Travelling for inspiration. All of these things may inspire the next creative breakthrough, but unless you are setting up your projects with firm deadlines and a clean finish line, odds are that your best work will never see the light of day. There's no doubt that Coldplay has unlimited flexibility to do whatever it needs to do to get the best results, but something tells me that if they moved that finish line just a little bit closer, they would still have had the same level of success. Could an extra week of writing and editing have made my first business book, Six Pixels of Separation, sell more copies? Maybe, but the deadline (and the finish line) ensured that it was going to get done, and it ultimately helped me structure the process in a way that made the entire project come together.



Love your deadlines.



Too many people lament the deadline. They see them as evil. As stifling the creative process. As making the work suffer. I don't. The finish line is a part of the process and, in many cases, this means that the work is going to representative of our best thinking in the framework of when the work is due. Does this mean we can create an opus in twenty-four hours? Some may be able to, but we're also talking about having realistic deadlines and credible finish lines (fully recognizing that it's not always possible to even get that). The moral of the story? When there's a big project that has to get done, always keep that finish line in mind. You're not just trying to create something magical. You're trying to create something magical in time for that finish line.



There are too many great things that never get produced because people think that even having a finish line is detrimental to the outcome. How sad.





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Published on August 03, 2012 12:43

August 2, 2012

What's Next? It's You

If we stagnate, we die... so, what's next?



This is the question that my good friend, Mark W. Schaefer asks in his blog post, Is there anything new in blogging? No. It will make great fodder for an upcoming episode of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast that we've both agreed to record in the next short while, but it's also a thought that has been rumbling around in my brain since I read his blog post a few days back. Mark's chief concern is that after attending Blog World And New Media Expo in New York City a few weeks back, that there really isn't anything new under the new media sun. That the majority of the sessions are still about the same things that they were about nearly ten years ago: how to write great linkbait, how to get paid for blogging, how to monetize a blog, how to grown a blog audience and on and on and on.



It's hard to be inspired when we're asking the same questions (again).



I understand Mark's frustration, but I don't agree with his overall sentiment that there is nothing new in blogging. In fact, I would argue that with each and every passing day, I see more and more bloggers doing everything within their creative capacities to outdo not only themselves, but their fellow bloggers and some of the bigger online (and traditional) content channels. I believe that "what's new" is the fact that the line between professional publishing and opinion-based blogging gets thinner and smaller. So, the competitive landscape to create compelling content creates a scenario where amazing content is coming at us from all angles. On top of that, more and more people are discovering blogging as a viable publishing platform (it's no longer the black sheep), and this is creating an entirely new generation of both short and long form content. Don't believe me? Choose a niche and add the word "blog" after it in a generic Google search and enjoy the deep dive into a world of fresh, new and compelling content. It's content that has evolved. Dramatically.



From then to now.



Blogs used to be more free-form. They were online journals where individuals would ramble or beat their own chests. While some still have that occasional hue to it, it has matured into a viable publishing engine. One where proper grammar and spelling are not only expected (and trust me, I get called out on this plenty), but where credible content is key. To me, it feels like with each passing day, people just like you and me are doing that much more critical thinking and blogging about it which is, ultimately, making the content better and better. In a way, Mark's right: maybe there is nothing new in terms of what people want to get out of their blogs, but maybe the answer to what's truly new is that you (and me) are stepping up our games (because we have to).



The end of easy.



It was bound to happen. We were heading for a place where "top ten" and "how to"-types of blog posts may become redundant or rudimentary. We've come to a place where those who were never going to stick it out with blogging for the long haul are busy on Twitter and Facebook, where they can share without the burden of having a passion for writing. So, in the end, maybe what's new for blogging is a place where the real bloggers step in and create a new type of copy for the world to consume. A place where more and more creative thinkers get to tinker with words in new and interesting ways. It's a place where you (and everyone else who wants to write and have a voice) gets to be free to try it out and see what kind of audience their words, images and even video connects with. Blogging - as a platform - may never have anything new to show for itself. Blogging - as a creative white space - is still in its early days. This means that everyday we should always be seeing something new, interesting and worth remarking about. It means that we should be looking less at the innovations that come from the platform of publishing and much more at what that platform produces.



The future of blogging isn't dependant on how it functions. The future of blogging is dependant on the people and the words that they produce.





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Published on August 02, 2012 12:16

August 1, 2012

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Content

What's your endgame?



You won't be surprised to know that so few brands actually have an answer to that one, specific, question. Without an answer to that question, you wind up getting the type of branded content that we're all being inundated with, day in and day out. It seems like a never-ending slew of silly questions, random polls and worse. Brands are, sadly, playing it safe when it comes to content and, while it is authentic, it lacks any form of life. So, with that, it comes off as a subtle version of advertorial content. Nothing more.



Don't offend anyone.



That's the main issue that brands will face when it comes to publishing content. They embrace apathy. Long ago (back in my music journalism days), I remember Gene Simmons from KISS saying something like: "people either love KISS or hate us with all of their guts, and that's the way we like it." His point was that apathy is plain. It's vanilla. There is no spark. Apathy is death. When was the last time you read a piece of content and it moved you? Moved you to share it? Talk about it? Blog about it? Send it to someone? It probably happens on a daily basis. I see people sharing and commenting on all sorts of compelling content in places like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and on their own blogs, etc... I also know that there are many people who read my blog postings just to laugh at it, be snarky or think that's it dumb. None of that bothers me, because I too (like Gene Simmons) don't embrace apathy. The majority of my content is opinion. My opinion. I have the humility to recognize that my opinion will not be shared by one and all. Brands don't want to offend. Brands want their content to resonate with everyone.



The goal of appeasing everyone is a testament to how quickly it will fail.



Quick: name a song or movie that everyone loves. For every classic you can rattle off, there is an audience (potentially of equal size) that simply thinks that its overrated. The classic line that if you want to please everyone, you wind up pleasing no one is somewhat true in this day and age of content marketing as well. Brands need to embrace the edges. They need to go out and work with people who can create genuine content for them that will resonate with an audience. Not the entire global population, but their, specific, audience. Wanting to speak to teens or moms or divorced dads is not enough. Those segments are now too massive to breakthrough. You need to find those edges (again). We live in a day and age when the content that is created is now all indexable, shareable and findable forever. It's all stored in digital bits and bytes forever for the world to see. Content doesn't just find an audience anymore... now - more than ever - consumers are seeking out content that is relevant to them.



Work from the end.



Go and review all of the content that you're creating and sharing as a brand. Spread it out on the virtual table and take a cold, hard look at it. What do you see? Do you see a legacy or do you simply see a random splattering or varied pieces of content that are being used as a pawn in a game to collect likes, followers and friends? Is this too harsh? It may be, but in a day and age when any brand can publish in short and long form in text, images, audio and video, why is it so challenging to come up with a myriad of examples where brands are creating content that is as compelling as the stuff that Wired, Fast Company and The New York Times puts out (let's not forget about the thousands of excellent independent blogs and podcasts).



Think legacy.



The best publishers think about their legacy. They respect their brand name and masthead. They want to ensure that whatever they publish will stand up to the test of time. They hope to honor those that were publishing before them and hope to increase readership and engagement with each and every piece of content that they publish going forward. Do we really think that brands are putting that type of thought and dedication into the content they're publishing? I'm not so sure. The beautiful thing is that it's still early days. A brand can still look at that virtual table filled with their content to date and stop the insanity. They can make some harsh and decisive plans to get serious about what they're publishing. They can stop and realize that there really is no reason why they can't provide something unique, a different opinion and another perspective. If all they're trying to do is sanitize the media or turn a press release into a story, they're missing one of the biggest opportunities that they may ever have: to actually create something that people will seek out and share which, in turn, should make them that much more loyal to their brand.



Content is not about marketing. Content is about the brand legacy that you will leave.





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Published on August 01, 2012 18:19

The Art Of Fake Familiarity

Pitches are getting worse.



I recently got an email pitch from a public relations specialist that read something like this: "Hey Mitch, I work with Lame Corp. I'm a big fan of your blog and your newspaper articles. I know that you have written about our research before, so I'm attaching some new findings that I know you will find interesting. Our President, Mr. Lame-O, would love to spend some time with you on the phone to discuss our latest research, so please let me know if we can arrange some time in the next few days for you two to connect. I also saw on Twitter that you were at the Google offices in Mountain View recently. I have never been, but I hope to get the chance to go at some point in the near future." If you, your company or the communications agency that represents you has ever sent an email pitch like this before, you may be wondering what the issue is?



The problem with PR pitching is a topic that is constantly (and hotly) debated in the online channels.



While the general onslaught of non-personalized and near-offensive pitches continues to deluge the inbox of anyone who blogs and tweets (regardless of audience size and relevance), there's no doubt that some public relations firms have spent a significant amount of time, money and resources as they inch away from the "spray and pray" model of blasting their self-involved news updates to anyone with a publish button over to one where they spend time training their media relations professionals to get better at knowing their target market that much more.



Hence, the problem with the pitch above... it's stuck in the middle.



It's definitely not a non-personalized pitch, but it's also an individual (and a company that they represent) that I simply don't know (or don't remember). And so, it turns out that faking familiarity has an air of creepiness that is somewhat more disturbing than the spam that came before it. In the age of social media, networked people and a world where we publish everything (including our comings and goings and pictures of our kids) in places like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it should come as no surprise that the smarter businesses are going to leverage this social data in some form of manipulative way (at least, the more dubious ones will). My first reaction to the pitch was to do a quick search on my blog for their company, name and research to see, if in fact, I had previously mentioned them. Guess what? Zero. Nada. Never. So now, they're not only trying to fake familiarity, but they're lying in the process.



Public relations is human relations.



...regardless of whether you're hiding behind a keyboard or standing in front of someone at a local chamber of commerce networking event. That's the biggest part of social media that the majority of companies still fail to accept and embrace. The companies that have made strides are the one that made changes to their corporate culture (both internally and externally) by using social media. The over-arching spirit of this shift it to create more powerful and real connections. It's not easy to do this and it takes a significant amount of corporate restructuring, top-down desire from the c-suite and a general impetus to change how the general public deals and interacts with a business. The above scenario isn't about a bad PR pitch. It's about a company that thinks it's leveraging social media to better connect with a constituency, when in reality they're using the channel to manipulate.



The real question is this: in a world of spammers and those trying to create a sense of familiarity, how do you - as a business - truly connect with customers and media in a more powerful and profound way?



The answer is simple (and not all that technical): how would you approach someone you really wanted to meet if you ran into them at an airport lounge? The art of social networking doesn't come from the "social" part of the equation... it comes from the "networking" part. The brands and individuals who build up significant audiences that are both engaged in their messages and helpful in terms of amplifying them are the ones who take the time to be the best networkers. They introduce themselves in a kind, simple and short way. They do their best to understand the people they're connecting to. They provide value first and are, ultimately, respectful of the other individual's time and temperament.



It's sad to see how often those media relations professionals push words around without taking the time to do their homework first.



They say that they have so many clients who are demanding that as many people as possible see their messages and news. They simply do not have the time to get to know each and every individual that they're sending out messaging to. That those they're sending brand messaging out to are not all that kind and treat them with disdain. What these media relations professionals and the brands that hire them have to understand is that social media is an ecosystem where great ideas do spread (look no further that how videos go viral on YouTube or how new business ventures get significant funding on Kickstarter). The real trick is in doing the work in the upfront phases of your business development to win friends and influence people in a digital world.



It may be easier to just blast anyone and everyone with your messaging, but odds are you will reap much greater rewards if you take the time to truly - and authentically - connect in a world where we're all connected.



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, but you can check out the original versions online here:




Montreal Gazette - In the business world, fake familiarity also breeds contempt.

Vancouver Sun - not yet published.




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Published on August 01, 2012 07:15

July 30, 2012

Content Marketing And The New Advertising

Episode #316 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.



I've been following Rebecca Lieb's marketing, advertising and media thinking since the early days of online marketing and her work at ClickZ and when she ran Search Engine Watch. Her bestselling book, The Truth About Search Engine Optimization, is a must-read. Most recently, she published a book titled, Content Marketing - Think Like a Publisher - How to Use Content to Marketing Online and in Social Media. After interviewing Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter Group (you can listen to that show right here: SPOS #303 - Why Social Media Agencies Are Turning To Advertising With Jeremiah Owyang), he recommended that Rebecca come on to the podcast, as she joined Altimeter Group as their Advertising and Media Analyst. How could I say no? 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 #316.





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david usher

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Published on July 30, 2012 11:00

July 28, 2012

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #110

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:




Spoiled Rotten - The New Yorker. "Well, since I'm not winning any friends by picking on the US this week, I may as well make it two for two. 'With the exception of the imperial offspring of the Ming dynasty and the dauphins of pre-Revolutionary France, contemporary American kids may represent the most indulged young people in the history of the world.' Ouch. But it's an interesting discussion of cultural differences in child-rearing." (Alistair for Hugh).

. "Tongue in cheek, sure, but there's some truth in here. A roundup of some of the more ludicrously trending names for new children show that creativity is at an all-time high, perhaps at the expense of consequence. See how Drew Magary skewers such gems as Blayde, Sketch, Zebulon, Fallyn, and even Sharpay. 'This is a character from High School Musical. It's also a breed of dog. Why stop there? Name your child Dobyrman.' Funny, and not particularly suitable for work." (Alistair for Mitch).

Another Chunk of the Petermann Glacier Breaks Off in Greenland - NASA . "Stunning photos of a big Greenland glacier 'calving' an ice island - which happens when a piece of a glacier breaks off and starts floating away. This calving happens every summer, but what's significant is that calving is happening more often with larger chunks, as is expected with climate change." (Hugh for Alistair).

Was Moore's Law Inevitable? - Kevin Kelly . "Kevin Kelly takes a long, detailed look at Moore's Law, first articulated in the 1960s, which predicts (correctly, so far) that computing chips shrink by half in size and cost every 18-24 months (resulting in an exponential increase in computing power per dollar spent for you and me). One question about Moore's Law: is it truly a physical property, or is it rather a social/economic self-fulfilling prophesy, whereby companies, investors and especially engineers bust their chops to *make sure* that chips improve on schedule. Kelly looks at some other technologies that follow roughly Moore's Law, and concludes that there's more to it than prophesy. Beyond that, though, he thinks all of us need to start planning better for the implications of Moore's Law." (Hugh for Mitch).

Scientists Discover The Oldest, Largest Body Of Water In Existence--In Space - Fast Company . "You don't have to be a science nerd for this to blow your mind: 'Researchers found a lake of water so large that it could provide each person on Earth an entire planet's worth of water--20,000 times over. Yes, so much water out there in space that it could supply each one of us all the water on Earth--Niagara Falls, the Pacific Ocean, the polar ice caps, the puddle in the bottom of the canoe you forgot to flip over--20,000 times over.

The water is in a cloud around a huge black hole that is in the process of sucking in matter and spraying out energy (such an active black hole is called a quasar), and the waves of energy the black hole releases make water by literally knocking hydrogen and oxygen atoms together.' I don't care what you say, this is pretty mind-blowing stuff. When we discover  'intelligent' life forms, I may just give that news its own, unique, blog post ;)."
(Mitch for Alistair).

30 Traits Happy People Have in Common - Marc and Angel Hack Life . "I'm not sure if I saw this link via Nilofer Merchant or Avinash Kaushik , but I read it and thought to myself, 'happiness is a choice.' Nothing revolutionary with that thought, but I often find myself in a negative psychological loop where I'm looking to lay blame somewhere else (besides myself). I should know better and this blog post acted as a great reminder that you choose your happiness, regardless of your lot in life. Yes, it's easier said than done. Yes, some people are handed some pretty bad cards in the deck of life. Still, these words reminded me of a book I'm in the middle of reading (and one that I should have read long ago): Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl . It's an incredible story about survival and where that instinct comes from... and how it comes from the choices that we make." (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

avinash kaushik

bitcurrent

complete web monitoring

deadspin

drew magary

fast company

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

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kevin kelly

librivox

link exchange

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managing bandwidth

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mark and angel hack life

media hacks

moores law

nasa

nilofer merchant

petermann glacier

pressbooks

story

the book oven

the new yorker

viktor frankl

year one labs



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Published on July 28, 2012 13:01

July 25, 2012

On Knowing (And Experience)

How old should a Social Media Manager be?



It's not hard to create an online firestorm by blogging something that is more perspective than experience. No one is feeling the brunt of this more than Cathryn Sloane these days. On July 20th, 2012, Sloane published a blog post titled, Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25, over at the Next Gen Journal in which she attempts to explain why the best Social Media Managers are those who understand the Internet more than everybody else because they grew up with it. She states: "...every generation has changes in history that define them, and social media happens to be one of those for mine. I do commend the way companies (and basically the entire population) have jumped on the social media bandwagon and recognized that it is the best way to connect with people nowadays. Yet, every time I see a job posting for a Social Media Manager/Associate/etc. and find the employer is looking for five to ten years of direct experience, I wonder why they don't realize the candidates who are in fact best suited for the position actually aren't old enough to have that much experience."



It's a ridiculous statement.



I've blogged about this before. Just because I use a lot of electricity (I'm constantly turning on lights, flicking switches and plugging in stuff), it doesn't mean that I should be an electrician. I'm not an electrician. I'm not trained. I haven't practiced and just because I use something or have always been around it, it doesn't mean I have any semblance or experience or expertise with it when it comes to using it for success in business.



Knowing how to use something is not experience.



I hate talking about young people in this manner, because it makes me feel old and like a parent. I'm also cautious because I would never want to discourage anyone from speaking their mind or putting their thoughts out in public. Blogging is a great way to do some critical thinking and get some additional perspective. So, instead of attacking Sloane's thinking (enough people have already done so... just look a 550-plus comments), let's look at the more macro truth: you can't fake experience. Experience (actually doing the work - and not just tweeting about it - day in and day out over a progression of time) is something you can't fake. You have to earn it... the hard way. There's a reason why so many blogs have failed to gain significant traction over the years: most of the bloggers lacked real work experience (which provides vision) to see it through.



Social Media is still fairly undefined.



That's the real 800 pound gorilla in the room. Social media isn't an ad, it's not a marketing campaign and it's not customer service (sorry). It's a publishing platform. It's a place where any brand (or individual) can publish - in text, images, audio and video - instantly and for free to the world. With that comes a group of people who see it as a free broadcasting platform, or people who see it as a place to help customers get their answers, or a place share ideals. This judgmental attitude is silly (to me). It would be like going back to the days of Gutenberg's press and demanding that everything being printed must be a certain way. Do you think we would have things like poetry, comic books, magazines and fanzines if we judged the printing press the same way we judge social media? We'd probably all be priests and nuns.



Don't be confused.



Sloane's heart was in the right space. She's right: her generation understands the very underpinnings of what makes something social and why people behave this way. That shouldn't be swept under the rug. We're going to need that generation to help us reshape the very fabric of what it means to be a marketer. That being said, those with the greyer hair should not be thrown out with the bathwater, either. Last I checked, I was in my mid-teens when modems and BBS' came online (the original social media) and being connected through these digital channels is something that I have been focused on for around twenty years. I'm not blogging this to toot my own horn, but rather to demonstrate that connectivity, digital media and social media was happening long before Mark Zuckerberg thought up a better way to do what MySpace and Friendster were messing around with. Just because it was popularized in the generation that Sloane represents, it doesn't mean that what came before it didn't have the same level of significance, or create a layer of experienced and seasoned professionals able to handle the tasks at hand.



In the end, opinions and ideas are great. Experience is much harder to come by.





Tags:

advertising

bbs

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broadcasting

cathryn sloane

comic books

critical thinking

customer service

digital media

fanzines

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modem

myspace

next gen journal

poetry

printing press

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social media

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twitter



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Published on July 25, 2012 12:26

Six Pixels of Separation

Mitch Joel
Insights on brands, consumers and technology. A focus on business books and non-fiction authors.
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