Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 316

What New Media Has Taught Us About Truth

With each tragedy comes new learning.

There is no way to make any sense of the madness that transpired this past week in Colorado as twelve people died and close to sixty were injured as a lone gunman entered a screening of Dark Knight Rises and opened fire on the unsuspecting crowd. Watching the news filter out of Aurora, Colorado provided another glimpse into how new media continues to change the way we get news, information and reporting. In fact, it became abundantly clear, that lumping all three of those into the same bucket may no longer be the way in which we consume, create and share media.

Defining the boundaries.

One of the immediate issues that arose when blogging started to become more and more popular was the discourse as to whether or not bloggers can, should and/or would ever be considered journalists. It's an understandable predicament, as professional journalist hold their work and the industry that they serve in the highest regard (which is completely understandable). The challenge - as Clay Shirky (author of Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus) has pointed out - is that publishing shifted from a very complex process (to both create and distribute) to a simple button that anyone can press on a myriad of devices. News just doesn't come from one trusted source. Our news comes from everywhere and - what we're quickly learning - is that it's not just the editors and curators that are going to save us from figuring out what is fact from fiction and opinion.

It's going to take a village.

Tweets, Facebook updates, instant video streaming from mobile devices, Instagram photos and more are giving each and every one of us real-time publishing and distribution tools. If we're going to get better at creating media that is accurate, there is going to need to be a earnest effort on behalf of government, educational institutions, parents and the common person (that's you and I) to better educate our society as to what media is (from both a consumption and production perspective). Part of the reason we're having an increased challenge in sorting the wheat from the chaff (and part of the reason that fake celebrity death reports on Twitter and the like happen) is because we're used to seeing something published and believing it (look no further than celebrity tabloid newspapers and their headlines).

We trust media. We don't, necessarily, understand media.

Each and everyday, you can pop on to Twitter, Facebook and the like, to see how bad we are at consuming a piece of content. Links get shared and retweeted at a fast and furious pace with a vast majority of people simply sharing information without having ever clicked on the link to verify the information for themselves (I've done this myself, on several occasions). It would be simple enough to simply educate people that they should click links first, read the content, understand the source and do some of their own primary research prior to sharing, but let's face it: hitting the retweet button is just that much easier. And, if we're wrong and it's a mistake, we can simply send out another tweets ("whoops, my bad... that was wrong!") or we can simply say nothing (which is how the vast majority handle it).

Houston... we have a problem.

Where do we go for the truth... the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Some will tell you places like CNN and other "reliable sources." In a world where everyone is creating and sharing and investigating, we've also uncovered that our most reliable news sources are somewhat opinionated and often wrong as well. The truth - as it turns out - has about fifty shades of grey it. How do we overcome this? We may not be able to (at least not in the next little while).

Who are we?

We are the great discoverers. We are travelling off to the edges, poking around, testing the waters and trying (even when we don't realize it) to draw some kind of map. What we have to realize is that the vast majority of news (as we had defined it prior to new media) has radically changed. We now have people (in fact, almost all of us) who report on events, provide information and create journalistic content. These worlds blend and shift and twist and we throw our hands in the air claiming that everything must be scrutinized or that nothing is to be believed, when - in fact - we're not really questioning the content. We're beginning to understand the most powerful component of media: what makes us believe something. In essence, new media is most amazing because people are beginning to doubt what they read, hear and see. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's probably one of the best thing that has happened to the news since it was created.

Now, it's your turn: is new media creating new paradigm in what we believe or are we more numb to the truth than ever before? 

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post called, Media Hacker . 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:

The Huffington Post - What New Media Has Taught Us About Truth .

Tags:

aurora colorado

blogging

business column

clay shirky

cnn

cognitive surplus

curation

dark knight rises

facebook

here comes everybody

information

instagram

journalism

journalist

media

media education

media hacker

new media

news

newspaper

publishing

reliable sources

reporting

the huffington post

twitter

video streaming

Living In A Shopping Mall

It's interesting to think about what the shopping center of the future may look like.

Over the past decade, I've spent a good amount of blog, article, book and speaking real estate looking at the future of shopping and what that real estate may (or may not) look like. There's no denying that the digitization and e-commerce evolution has radically changed the retail landscape. Without sounding too bullish, it's going to continue. Not with a lateral growth curve but with exponential growth. As retail continues to tinker with models to encourage people to come down to their physical stores, it's hard not be overwhelmed by everything that brands like Amazon are doing (see here: When Real Time Becomes Really Real Time) and how things like showrooming and smartphones are playing a major part in retail's struggle to keep pace and relevance.

What retail should do.

We used to go shopping not just to buy the things that we needed, but because it was a social experience. Once e-commerce took hold, the need to go to the physical space became increasingly less relevant. Customers not only liked the ease of online shopping, it provided them with better pricing and endless aisles (in terms of selection). This (as one example) put the hurt on the traditional shopping mall model of having major retails anchor the malls. This evolution led to the bridging of entertainment and shopping. Retail stores were now being anchored by movie theaters, dining, comedy clubs, entertainment facilities and more. The shopping mall became a destination for shopping and entertainment. The foot traffic would increase because people were going to malls to catch a movie or grab a bite with the family.

The pressure continues to increase.

Suddenly, you can have a home theater that rivals those at the mall, and your home console video game systems are way more impressive than the arcade. Shopping mall developers aren't numb, they know what's going on and they're scrambling to make the retail experience more... experiential. Not every mall will be afforded a store like Apple or Forever 21, so they'll need to be doing a whole lot more in a world where Amazon is quickly racing to develop same day delivery. Yesterday, The Globe And Mail ran an article titled, Oakridge owners hoping to expand mall into small city that speaks to my utopian vision of what a shopping center could be: "Now Oakridge's owners are looking to do much more. They want to transform the 56-year-old mall into its own small city. Doing so means not just more housing, retail and office space, but also parks, bikeways, walking paths, a library, its own district energy system, and a re-orienting itself to the sudden influx of customers coming by transit with the Canada Line."

Beyond entertainment.

If shopping malls and great retail experiences have a future it will be in creating a better reason for people to come. There is no doubt that a great shopping mall is still a social experience and one of the primary places that a community comes together, so while environmentalists and protectionists want to either keep their communities a certain way, I've been saying for a long while that shopping malls and other places with dense retail experiences will need to give people better reasons to visit. Creating a space where there are homes, offices, libraries, parks and more is intriguing. Thinking of a shopping mall as a space that is more like a city could be one of the craziest ideas ever put forward or one of the best ways for retail to regain its footing in the community.

What do you think?

Tags:

amazon

apple

blog

commercial real estate

e commerce

ecommerce

endless aisles

entertainment

forever 21

home theater

oakridge

online shopping

real estate

retail

retail experience

retail landscape

shopping

shopping center

shopping mall developers

showrooming

smartphone

social experience

the future of retail

the globe and mail

video game console

A New Kind Of Startup

Episode #315 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Julien Smith (co-author of Trust Agents with Chris Brogan and the author of The Flinch) was downright mad at me. We have lunch on a frequent basis and we're constantly slamming ideas and names at one another. It makes for a lively conversation. The other week, he was downright disgusted with me because I had never met Chris Guillebeau. Chris is the author of The Art Of Non-Conformity - Set Your Own Rules, Live The Life You Want And Change The World and the recently published, The $100 Startup - Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future, which became an instant bestseller. Along with that, he's the co-organizer of what is quickly becoming one of the "go to" events for those trying to create a remarkable life in a very conventional world called, World Domination Summit (which took place at the beginning of this month in Portland, Oregon). This idea of non-conformity and unconventionalism is a theme that binds Chris' life. He's about to turn 35 and complete his personal journey of visiting every country on earth (out of close to 200, he has a mere 8 to go). While he's never had a "day job," he seems to be doing just fine owning, operating and executing on many micro-businesses. He explains that his entrepreneurial history has ranged from importing coffee from Jamaica, search engine optimization in its early days, Google Adwords and Adsense arbitrage, to building a small publishing company while volunteering in Africa. He now writes and sells a product he calls, Unconventional Guides. Simply put, he's a fascinating individuals with many business lessons that we could all learn from. 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 #315.

Tags:

advertising podcast

artists for amnesty

blog

blogging

brand

business book

chris brogan

chris guillebeau

david usher

digital marketing

entrepreneur

facebook

google adsense

google adwords

itunes

julien smith

marketing

marketing blogger

marketing podcast

micro business

online social network

podcast

podcasting

social media

the 100 startup

the art of non conformity

the flinch

trust agents

unconventional guides

world domination summit

Brands Need To Think Like Artists

It's amazing how content finds you, isn't it?

Brands feel the need to impress. They do this by trying to create something grand that people will like. If it clicks, if it works, they lather, rinse and repeat. There's a reason consumers have so much fatigue when it comes to brands and their marketing initiatives (and how quickly it sets in). Keeping attention is hard (very, very hard) work. Most brands don't have the intestinal fortitude to see it through. Most brands have senior leadership that shifts and changes so much, that the very DNA of what the brands stands for can never, truly, be maintained and nurtured over time.

Watch this:

There was one major lesson for brands here... did you catch it?

Let me help you along: "If you address yourself to an audience, you accept at the outset the basic premises that unite the audience. You put on the audience, repeating cliches familiar to it. But artists don't address themselves to audiences, they create audiences. The artist talks to himself out loud. If what he has to say is significant, others hear and are affected."

Does your brand "talk to itself out loud"?

I'm starting to like the analogy of "the work that we do as our art" more and more with each passing day. Eerily enough, when I blog about the more random musings (be they personal or more related to my interests outside of marketing), these seem to be the types of blog posts that get the most attention, amplification and shares. If I were a brand manager of Six Pixels of Separation and I had to show to my c-suite what was "working" when it came to my content, my guess is that this same c-suite would tell me to "shut it down," because the most talked about stuff is the content that is most unrelated to the raison d'etre of the blog in the first place.

We're missing the point.

The bigger message here is that brands seem to live and die by the numbers and this forces them to create messages for an audience, rather than creating something of significance that will find its way to the people who matter most. It's not a slight shift in thinking, this is a true paradigm shift. How often do you find yourself asking, "what is it that my audience wants?" instead of saying "let's create this because it's who we truly are."?

What's your take?

hat-tip to Bob Lefsetz for pointing this video out.

Tags:

artist

audience

blog

bob lefsetz

brand

consumer

content

marketing

The Marketing Problem Is Simple: There Are Too Many Ads

As a brand, do you find it hard to put your message in front of the right audience?

This used to be the major challenge. The entire construct of the advertising industry was built on the scarcity model. There was only a finite number of pages in the newspaper allotted to advertising. There were only so many commercial breaks during some of prime time's biggest TV shows, and if you didn't get your spot on the local radio morning program, they were only on air for a brief time because traffic only lasts for a couple of hours if you want that captive audience. The fact is that our definition of "captive audience" has shifted and morphed significantly since the popularization of the Internet. Do consumers visit just one site that they're loyal too (i.e. the old portal model of Yahoo, AOL, etc...) or do they visit multiple sites in a more chaotic fashion across multiple devices (computer screen, tablet, smartphone, etc...)?

Putting your ads everywhere.

In a new world where one Web page can house multiple ads or where one significant article can be laid out on multiple Web pages (to generate more pageviews and, hence, more ad impressions), the scarcity model begins to fall apart. If your brand can post your commercial to YouTube and generate tens of millions of views (which is common for ads that are remarkable) for free, what does that say when you have to do a media buy with a guarantee that you will generate fewer impressions? Do brands still feel that they struggle to get their message in front of consumers? The answer is: yes. But, they feel this way not because it's expensive to advertise or because there is a lack of substantive places to put those ads. They feel this way because it's hard to make a message standout in such a crowded environment.

Don't kid yourself: the environment is getting more and more crowded.

One of the things I loved about Google AdWords happened with the advent of AdSense. The ability for a blog (or website or whatever) to have targeted advertising run on sites that were more relevant than random run of network, generic, advertising sounded promising. For some, this has worked magically and other still struggle with it. Beyond the politics and business of Google, the untethering of their advertising model and creation of a veritable advertising network was impressive. Google didn't invent the advertising network and many other media companies have jumped on that train and turned it into a significant business in the online spaces.

Is this the plan for Facebook ?

On July 15th, 2012, Business Insider ran a new item titled, This Diagram Explains Facebook's Next $10 Billion Business. From the article: "Our source says Facebook's next $10 billion business (which would be its first)... will sell ad inventory on third-party sites and target it using its own data AND third-party data. Our source calls this business 'FaceSense' because it will compete with Google's ad network, Ad Sense. Ad Sense does about $2.5 billion in revenue per quarter; hence our source's $10 billion figure."  It does feel right, doesn't it? If Facebook can promise to deliver more relevant and contextual advertising to other publishers based on their data and additional third-party analytics, who wouldn't bite at the opportunity.

The problem is that we're only talking about advertising.

The media companies are going to pounce on this. As will most brands and publishers. They'll be excited by the targeting and re-targeting capabilities, but all of these bright and shiny objects will obscure the bigger opportunity: it's not about the advertising... it's about the marketing. I don't believe that brands need more places to put their ads. I do believe that Facebook has amazing capabilities to help brands connect - in a deeper and more profound way - with their consumers. A Facebook ad exchange seems like a smart enough cash grab, but I'm hopeful that they will soon evolve into thinking about what the social graph means to people and how they can better connect to the companies that they care about. If, in the end, the only money that Facebook makes is from taking their data and helping brands better target ads on other media properties, something tells me that the majority of users will continue to do what they've done to date: ignore online advertising because there's a lot of it and it's everywhere. Don't confuse what I'm saying here: smart brands are doing great things with targeting, awareness and drilling down to better understand where their consumers are playing, but blasting a message in front of that experience is only a small slice of a much bigger pie.

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Do you think this is Facebook's future?

Tags:

ad impressions

advertising

advertising industry

advertising model

advertising network

aol

blog

brand

brand message

business insider

contextual advertising

facebook

facesense

google

google ad network

google adsense

google adwords

local radio

marketing

media company

media property

newspaper

online advertising

online media

pageview

publisher

retargeting

smartphone

social graph

tablet

targeted advertising

tv commercial

web analytics

web portal

website

yahoo

youtube

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #109

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:

The cost of funny voices: Helium shortage sends prices soaring - The National Post . "We had my daughter's second birthday this weekend, with the requisite balloons and party favors. Turns out that's not very sustainable. Helium is a non-renewable resource; it tends to leak out easily, and its price has been controlled by the US strategic reserve. But that's beginning to change, and as it turns out, Helium is good for everything from LCD screens to MRI machines. So say goodbye to talking in those funny voices." (Alistair for Hugh).

Supreme Court Upholds The Affordable Care Act (June 2012): Where should people angry with the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act move to? - Quora . "A decent Quora thread trying to figure out where someone who doesn't like government-run healthcare should go. As it turns out, there aren't many countries left that truly embrace the kind of personal freedom and libertarian policies endorsed by Tea Party members (when they aren't driving taxpayer-funded cars, that is.)." (Alistair for Mitch).

Can GM mosquitoes rid the world of a major killer? - The Guardian . "From the 'what could possibly go wrong' files: Scientists are creating genetically modified mosquitoes, and releasing males into the wild. When these GM males mate with wild females, they breed offspring that die in a couple of days. The company behind this technique claims that they can reduce disease-carrying mosquito populations by 80% - saving many lives lost to malaria and dengue fever." (Hugh for Alistair).

Why I opened the 'Bank' of Dave - The Guardian . "A feel-good banking story for a change. One of the impacts of the global financial crisis is that credit dried up for small businesses, which has made it hard for many of them to survive - even businesses that have always paid their bills. Here's a story of a hacker- - a guy who owns a company that sells minibuses, who found that his clients could no longer get bank financing to purchase the buses. So he started an alternate, not-for-profit 'bank' specifically designed to make loans to small businesses." (Hugh for Mitch).

Rethinking Architecture for a More Connected Future - Mashable . "I'm an urbanist of the highest order. I like cement, shopping malls and air conditioning. Meaning: I have no appetite for roughing it or camping. I would not survive in the post-apocalyptic world that the science fiction movies have created. With that, I'm uncovering an interest and curiosity in architecture and how cities come together. What fascinates me more are offices and workspaces in a world that is becoming ever-more urbanized but digital and mobile at the same time. I can't help but stare in awe at pictures of the new Apple campus, while at the same time wonder if we still need infrastructures like this to sustain economies? Needless to say, we live in interesting times and I'm curious to see how design and architecture will continue to adapt to our new work realities." (Mitch for Alistair).

Marissa Mayer becomes CEO of Yahoo, and proves women cannot have it all - Penelope Trunk . "I would be lying if I said that the appointment of long-time Google leader, Marissa Mayer , taking on the role of CEO at Yahoo didn't throw me for a loop (it did, and a big congrats to Yahoo for scoring her). Now that Mayer has taken on the role and announced that she's pregnant, the discourse online has shifted. I appreciate where Penelope Trunk is coming from. Not as a man. Not as a woman. Not as a human being. But as a parent. People think that I travel a lot and that I'm a workaholic. The truth of the matter is that I am constantly doing everything within my very being to get home and be with my young family - as much as possible. I don't want my kids being brought up by others (or thinking that I wasn't around), and I agree with Trunk when she says things like: 'Do you know what we do not celebrate? Staying home with kids. There are no official titles or pay scales. It's disappointing to women who don't have kids to watch another woman with a fascinating, fun career leave that career to take care of her kids. It scares the women who don't have kids. No one aspires to be the woman who dumps a great career to step out of the spotlight.' I realize that it's difficult to take my opinion (because I'm a man), but I wish we put the role of parenting in a much higher regard. It is, without question, the toughest job and one we should all admire and respect a whole lot more." (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

apple

bitcurrent

complete web monitoring

gigaom

google

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

librivox

link exchange

linkbait

managing bandwidth

marissa mayer

mashable

media hacks

penelope trunk

pressbooks

quora

story

the book oven

the guardian

the national post

yahoo

year one labs

As Good As It Gets

I love Henry Rollins.

In my music industry career, I had the chance to meet and interview Henry Rollins on numerous occasions. Over a decade-plus, I had the chance to interview many of the world's biggest rock stars, but Rollins always intimidated me. It wasn't the muscles or the tattoos. It wasn't the punk panic from his work fronting the band Black Flag or his own solo ventures. It was his written and spoken word. He had his own publishing imprint, 2.13.61, and I bought, read, devoured and re-read practically everything he self-published (and the authors that he signed to the imprint as well). I own almost every single CD of spoken word work he put out. Intimidation = massive fanboy. The good news? Rollins never disappointed. He was kind, gracious, well-spoken and professional. I often get asked what it takes to make it in the marketing industry. I think this short and beautiful clip of Rollins sums it up perfectly...

Watch this:

Life lessons from Henry Rollins: 

Always ask yourself: "is this as good as it gets?" 

Life can be tough: a lot of standing on your feet and a lot of taking it from other people with very little to show for it by Friday evening.

Always look at the ice cream scooper in your life. Trust me, you have one.

If you walk out today to follow your dream, what will you really be missing?

Whatever you do: pack your bags and meet the band on the road.

Life is a lottery.

Never forget what you have to go back to.

Say "yes" to everything.

People like you (and me) fail most of the time.

It's not about talent... it's about tenacity.

Know where you came from and know what you could wind up going back to.

Have a plan B, C, D, E, F and G.

Write everything down twice, show up early, shut up and listen.

When luck comes your way, take advantage of the opportunity.

There's not that many unique stories in our world.

I could watch this video multiple times, every day.

Tags:

2 13 61

big think

black flag

henry rollins

marketing

marketing industry

music industry

publishing

rock star

spoken word

Buying Friends, Followers And Likes

I got the call yesterday.

A national radio program was doing a segment on brands who buy Facebook likes and followers. They wanted to know if Twist Image buys likes, friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter or any other online social network. The first time the call came in, I was in a client meeting, so when I listened back to the voice message, I had to stop and think: "does my agency buy likes, friends and followers?" I guess when it comes right down to it, we do. We help brands strategize as to what they should be doing in social media (and where to place their energy), we help them build a presence, work with them on content, voice, tone and manner and, in some instances, we do social media advertising to drive attention to these spaces.

That's not the type of "buying friends" these people are talking about.

The sudden interest in this subject comes out of the BBC and a story they ran on July 12th, 2012 titled, Facebook 'likes' and adverts' value doubted. From the article: "The vast majority of Facebook's revenues come from advertising and its performance will be scrutinised when it releases its financial results on 26 July... Earlier this year Facebook revealed that about 5-6% of its 901 million users might be fake - representing up to 54 million profiles... The BBC created a Facebook page for VirtualBagel - a made-up company with no products. The number of 'likes' it attracted from Egypt and the Philippines was out of proportion to other countries targeted such as the US and UK."

The popularity contest.

It turns out (and there's no surprise here) that brands are willing to buy fans, likes and followers (and, while the BBC focused on Facebook, let's face it, it happens in every channel). We're not talking about creating attention that generates a genuine action on behalf of the consumer, we're talking about doing whatever it takes to bump up the numbers. It wasn't that long ago, that brands were also buying things like inbound links and more to bump up web traffic or visits to a blog. Let's face it, if it's possible to game the system (and it's not all that expensive), there's an actual incentive to do this.

The popularity contest is stupid.

So, you bought friends, followers and likes... now what? You have hundreds of thousands of people who have clicked a link for your brand (and who cares if they're from Egypt, the Philippines or any other foreign land), what did you truly gain? You can tell your boss that the brand is popular? You can have more followers than your competitor? It's a losing proposition and there's no value in it. Why? Because it's not how many people follow you. It's how many people share, amplify and act as your ambassador. It's about how many people really (and truly) care.

See, that's the point of social media that no brand wants to face.

Numbers don't mean squat in social media. Numbers mean everything when the people you're connected to do something about it. So, your brand reached 100,000 followers. How many of them have muted you on their wall? How many of them, like, share and recommend you to others? How many of them are following you because that's the channel they use to complain about you? How many of the active fans do you actually connect to, follow and engage with? Don't kid yourself into thinking that this is obvious. It's not. Just look at the BBC story and start doing some snooping around of your own and you know what you'll discover?

Brands are chasing numbers not value.

Here's the dirty little secret: buy all the fans, friends, followers and likes that you want. Once they click on your link, you're dead to them. These consumers (who are not even real consumers) don't see you, share you or care about you. So, what did those numbers get you? Do you feel good when you put your head down on the pillow at night? Don't. Because, if you're just buying likes and not actually finding true fans, the only thing more fraudulent than buying fake fans is the way you're governing your own career.

Sorry to be harsh. But fake is fake and, in social media, there's nothing lower.

Tags:

advertising

bbc

blog

brand popularity

brand strategy

content

facebook

inbound link

online social network

publishing

social media

social media advertising

social media fraud

twitter

web traffic

Planning World Domination With $100

Portland, Oregon seems like the perfect place to hold the World Domination Summit, doesn't it?

No, this isn't some kind of Austin Powers joke. The city best known for its unconventional creative thinkers, farmer's market, food carts and people with interesting tattoos hosted this event for the second time this past month. It should also come as no surprise that one of the organizers behind such an unconventional conference would be the author of the bestselling business/lifestyle book, The Art Of Non-Conformity - Set Your Own Rules, Live The Life You Want And Change The World (Perigee Trade, 2010), Chris Guillebeau (who happens to live in Portland as well). What's the World Domination Summit all about? My friend, C.C. Chapman (co-author of Content Rules and the upcoming book, Amazing Things Will Happen) - a well-travelled professional business speaker - actually paid to attend this past year and describes it as a conference focused on "living a remarkable life in a conventional world."

Is this all sounding a little bit too new age-y for you?

Are you waiting for the talk of chakras and crystals to benefit your financial growth? Don't be. In what can best be described as an anti-traditional work movement, people like Guillebeau, Chapman and Tim Ferriss (New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef) are attempting to convince others to embrace their non-traditional perspectives, philosophies and strategies for what work is... and what it can mean in 2012 and beyond. These are the new entrepreneurs, and their thinking is changing the very fabric of business. They're not looking for sprawling offices and growing team members as an indicator for success. They're looking for self-actualization (and happy to make a lot of money if contentment comes first).

Self-actualization and happiness at work.

"Being self-employed is great, and it provides a great opportunity to think differently about life and the work that you are meant to do," Guillebeau explains via Skype. "I love to work, I love to make things and I've always been that way. I'm constantly focused on a project or the next project. So, in that sense I always have a job, I just don't have a job where I work 'for the man' or in a cubicle. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, I just don't come from that world, so I don't know that much about it. As I started expressing these ideas on my blog and in books, I started hearing more from people who want to break out of that world and start something different."

Delusions of grandeur or the new reality of work?

Guillebeau is about to turn 35. You might be thinking that this is nothing but post-university personal exploration and development. That Guillebeau will soon have a wake-up call, want to settle down with his wife, secure a mortgage and fall in line with that ever-elusive "American dream." He seems to be doing just fine owning, operating and executing on many micro-businesses. He explains that his entrepreneurial history has ranged from importing coffee from Jamaica, search engine optimization in its early days, Google Adwords and Adsense arbitrage, to building a small publishing company while volunteering in Africa. He now writes and sells a product he calls, Unconventional Guides, and just published his second book, The $100 Startup - Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future (Crown Business, 2012), which became an instant bestseller. If that's not enough, he's about to complete the journey that started it all: a desire to visit every country on earth (out of close to 200, he has a mere 8 to go).

The life you want to live.

"One of the many things that I learned while researching The $100 Startup, is that there has always been all sorts of people that have been self-employed in different ways," Guillebeau continues. "Micro-businesses have always existed since the beginning of commerce. When I lived in West Africa, you would realize that everyone in the village near Sierra Leone is an entrepreneur. There is no formal economy. They are simply hustling by selling their wares. But there is this new movement, because of globalization, access to technology, more and more people being comfortable buying and selling online, that allows people to go out and build businesses by connecting to people all over the world based on shared values, ideals and world view. Those are the conversations that I want to be a part of. The whole philosophy behind The Art of Non-Conformity and The $100 Startup is that you don't have to live your life they way that other people expect you to. On top of that, you can do good things for yourself and for others at the same time. It's not a false dichotomy. I think that creative self-employment is a great way to do that."

Do something that matters.

As participants left the World Domination Summit 2012 earlier this month, they were handed an envelope. In this envelope were two items:

A note that read: "Thanks for making World Domination Summit 2012 a fantastic experience. We'd love to see how you can put these funds to good use. Start a project, surprise someone, or something entirely different - it's up to you."

A hundred dollar bill. When was the last time you attended an event and were given one hundred dollars back at the end to actually do something with the information you received and the people you connected with?

You are not alone...

Guillebeau is not alone. The World Domination Summit sold out their one thousand tickets in a couple of hours. He expects that next year's edition will do the same (if not quicker). It seems like others are beginning to realize that work can, finally, be whatever you want it to be.

So, what do you want your work to be?

My entire conversation with Chris Guillebeau will be posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2012 in the next episode of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast .

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 - not yet published.

Vancouver Sun - not yet published.

Tags:

amazing thing will happen

american dream

austin powers

blog

business

business book

business speaker. tim ferriss

cc chapman

chris guillebeau

column

commerce

content rules

creative thinker

crown business

economy

entrepreneur

globalization

google

google adsense

google adwords

happiness at work

micro business

montreal gazette

newspaper column

perigee trade

postmedia

publishing

search engine optimization

self employed

skype

technology

the 100 startup

the 4 hour body

the 4 hour chef

the 4 hour workweek

the art of non conformity

the new york times

unconventional conference

unconventional guides

vancouver sun

world domination summit

Social Business By Design

Episode #314 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

I've been friends with Peter Kim since his days as an analyst at Forrester Research, so it's somewhat embarrassing that he has never been on the podcast. Currently, he is Chief Strategy Officer of Dachis Group, where he acts as an advisor on social business. Most recently, he co-authored a new business book called, Social Business By Design, with Dion Hinchcliffe (executive vice president, strategy of Dachis Group). There's no denying the sudden ascent of social business in our zeitgeist. As social media continues to roll along, more and more businesses are realizing that the implications of social technology go well beyond the marketing and advertising departments, and affect the entire business and culture. This is the work that Peter is focused on and most interested in. His blog, Being Peter Kim, is still widely regarded as one of the smartest marketing blogs in the world, and he's a passionate business leader. 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 #314.

Tags:

advertising

advertising podcast

artists for amnesty

being peter kim

blog

blogging

brand

business book

dachis group

david usher

digital marketing

dion hinchcliffe

facebook

forrester research

itunes

marketing

marketing blogger

marketing podcast

online social network

peter kim

podcast

podcasting

social business

social business by design

social media

social technology